Originally Posted by
bikemig
Nice job. Older road bikes that came with 27 inch wheels make great gravel mutts but so do a lot of "racing" bikes from the 70s. I'm thinking of doing a gravel bike conversion on a mid 70s Peugeot PR 10. It came stock with 700c wheels but it will take 38c clinchers. Those old racing bikes have eyelets and many of them were designed around pretty bad roads so the clearance is good.
1970's and early 80's Peugeots and Raleighs are pretty sure bets for good tire clearance, quality construction, and light weight if you got one of the high end models. I have one of each I use for gravel-type riding, they're perfect for that.
But by the mid-80's, 27 inch rims were gone, and frames built for 700c wheels no longer had much clearance at all. You were supposed to buy one of those newfangled mountain bike thingies if you wanted to run tires wider than 25mm.