Velocity rims + Travel Agents
svgeek,
Velocity produces a huge selection of various rims. Velocity even makes 27" but to get the huge selection its 700c. I went for big and durable on my 1985 Trek 720 fully loaded touring bike going for more substantial than original with Velocity Dyad 700c and 40 holes, which gave more clearance allowing 37mm tires. There are plenty of good non-disc hubs. My Trek is 126mm OLD .... you will find a cold set to 130mm or 135mm may need to be done on older bikes to accommodate new hub spacing.
I also have a Jamis Supernova cyclocross bike .... it had massive brake chatter caused by a carbon fork and cantilever brake under hard braking on the street. Solution was to replace front brake with a V-brake. This bike has SRAM B/rifters (20speed) .. I installed travel agents to pull more cable thru Shimano V-brake and it works just fine ... brake chatter gone and excellent braking.
I also have a Raleigh Alyeska Touring bike from mid 1980s (made in Japan maybe by Miyata) ... it has an incredibly nice ride. The frame is wonderful. With a disc brake comes a stiffer fork and a heavier bike. My Raleigh came with cantis but the hole configuration for the canti spring on the stud was a reverse from normal .... the brakes were inferior and I could not install most other brakes because of the reverse hole configuration. I eventually found that I could install Paul Motolite V-brakes as they do not use the stud holes to determine spring placement. I now have brake levers that pull more cable on this bike. Motolites are great brakes (but spendy) .... NO DISCS needed for me.