27" tires in Canada
 

I've got a flip bike that needs some new 27" shoes and the low cost spectrum of the tire selection seems to be less available than the last time I have tried to buy them.

Canadian Tire doesnt seem to stock any of their Kenda 27" tires and MEC has dropped the $10 Cheng Shin 27" but do carry some blackwall Kenda K35s and Contentials.

The UK online retailers either dont have any available or have the Continentals. Seems like just a couple years have passed and the local selection has gotten worse.

I get my Kenda's from from Amazon I assume you can do the same up north

I've found deals on yellow label paselas. They ride great and are reasonably priced online and sometimes locally. It would be more $$ if you own lots of bikes though. I'm happy there are good 27 inch tires still available.

What about Walmart? Maybe those Bell tires will be inexpensive enough.

It's a hit and miss with some shops here. I found decent tires from Veerubber to $18 to cheap CST for $14. Most shops carry premium 27 inch tires like Schwalbes or Specialized Armadillo tires. My CST have lasted quite a bit with heavy use, but be prepared to change a flat and get maybe 1000km out of them on a good season.
Canadian Tire 27 inch tires seem to be low stock most of the time so good luck finding them (your local CT will have an online data base to show availability to save you time.

Your best bet is to get good ones online, or a couple of pairs at least.

Best all rounder tires I found were at my LBS for $30. I believe they were the Schwalbe H159 or something.

Try your local co-op?

I've bought the Continental Ultra Sport II 27 x 1 1/4" Wire Bead Tire from MEC before. Nice tire. Not a bad price at $24 CAD each. They wear very well and seem to last forever.

eBay has no lack of suppliers of closeout price sets of 27” tires. :)

Conti US II
 

+1 on Ultra Sport II, has become my favorite tire, nice supple side wall, comfy ride! Your flippie will love you for them.

Checked amazon.ca. ...27 tires brings up a couple options around 20. Kinda high for a cheap flipper.

The largest bicycle parts distributor in Canada is Live To Play Sports (formerly Norco). They sell a Vee Rubber 27" x 1-1/4" tire for $13.99 CDN MSRP. Most LBS/IBD probably deal with LTP.

Canadian Tire uses D'Amour Bicycle & Sports in Montreal as their bicycle parts distributor and any CTC franchise should be able to order tires through them. They have the Vee Rubber & CST tires in 27". Sorry, I don't know pricing. They also have a number of IBD dealers in the Toronto area. Use their online dealer locator to find them.

Another major wholesale distributor is Babac Cycle Products in Montreal. They offer CYT tyres in 27". Again, I don't know the price. They also have several IBD in Toronto area, according to their online dealer locator.

Are you surprised? I haven't seen a new bike with 27" wheels being sold in North America for over 30 years.

As suggested, MEC Conti's are the better value up here.

Not exactly relevant to this section of the forums. You can still find needles for 100-year-old sewing machines; 30 years is the blink of an eye.

there are at least
 

25 bicycle stores in Toronto...google is your friend...

Totally relevant. The challenge for keeping C&V bikes running is finding parts. The challenge will always get greater for every unit of time that passes. It's like the BF-C&V version of Thermodynamics Second Law.

X2 just dropped off 2 brand new sets at my local co-op. I have no use for them anymore,

Interesting facts :During the 1st bicycle boom, there were 38 bicycle manufacturers in T.O.. The number of shops selling and repairing bicycles was 98. The population was less than a 1/10th of what it is to-day.

Your reference was to how new bikes are spec'ed which is irrelevant. There are scads of parts you'd never see on a new bike, but still readily available for C&V. New bikes haven't had thumbies for decades, yet they're still making new ones. Why should tires be any different? If anything, tires should be among the MOST likely things to be supported decades into the future, given that they're much more of a consumable than, say, a shifter.

The difference between thumbies and 27" tires is that it is the size that is obsolete, not any style or technology used in tires.

Anyhow, thumb shifters very much did go away for a long time. You could get ultra-cheapo friction style, and Paul's Components made expensive adapters to use bar end shifters. But indexed thumb shifters were gone from the market for quite a while. I only know of a limitd number of Suntour examples that survived past the era of 7 speed. Used Shimano thumb shifters only stayed in demand because there is a 'Phantom Click' so they could be adapted to work with 8 speed drivetrains.

Maybe 27" wheels will come back into style and there will be more options for tires, but I kind of doubt it because of the advantages and popularity of switching to 700c wheels, and the fact that many of the surviving fleet of 27" wheel bikes are department store junk.

So is the Raleigh version of 26". So are the old Schwinn 20", 24" and 26" sizes. All still actively supported and readily available, all for bikes that stopped being made long before 27"-ers were.

Back to what's relevant to the OP, the co-op idea mentioned above is probably the best place to start, if looking for a bargain. Presumably a metropolis the size of Toronto has one.

Nonsense.
I have never seen a bike shop, or a bike wholesaler catalogue, with more than one option for any of those sizes, except maybe two or three options for 26x1-3/8 (assuming that's what you meant by 'Raleigh version of 26"'). These are in no way 'still actively supported' anywhere near the level of 27" tires.

Got anything helpful to add, Wilfred Laurier ?

Yes I am sure that is why there is an entire thread devoted to all the different types of 27 inch tires you can buy ........ but sure tell me how I can't get them anymore and I will just keep ordering them from Amazon and Bike Tires direct and Velo Orange and Nashbar and... I also don't recall my Nishiki, French made Motobecane or my Miyata ever being department store junk.

This thread would be a little more intriguing if it were titled, 27" Tires in the Yukon.

Or ... 27' Tires in the Yukon.