LawsonMitchell

Does anyone sell nice 27" wheels with a HG free hub? Or is this something I'm going to have to have made custom?

bark_eater 

I think your up against a double Whammy. Bikes with 27" wheels are generally spaced at 126mm.
126mm 7 speed HG hubs haven't been produced for 20+ years.
Current production 126mm hubs are all FreeWheel hubs.
These are the hubs I have seen on every commercially available 27" wheelset..

So yeah, your going to have to have them custom made, and if you need 126mm HG hubs your going to have to source them your self.

Peter White's web page say's he has some 32h hubs available to build on, which may still be an option.
https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/wheels.php

noobinsf 

What I ended up doing for my Motobecane was to start with a Shimano 130mm-spaced hub with 7sp freehub, but then I swapped out the solid axle for a 126mm quick release axle and skewer from an old Sunshine hub. Works just fine.

Is there a specific reason you want to stick with 27"? In most cases, it's easy to go to 700c, which makes things easier in a number of ways.

Piff 

Custom for sure. Unless there was an odd moment of 7 speed hyperglide hubs made for some 27" wheeled tourers at the end of the '80s. And I think by the late '80s even touring bikes had made the swap to 700c.

LawsonMitchell

I just think the smaller wheels look funny and long reach brakes don’t work great on

canopus 

Not sure what you need for it to be nice... but I found this one in 30 seconds:
Sun CR18 & Shimano 7 speed

Ignore the 126mm vs 130mm people here. Just spread the dropouts a smidge while installing the wheel. My question would be why are you changing the hub? Do you just want to replace the wheel and not build a wheel? or is something else wrong? Or just want to keep your existing shifting system?

LawsonMitchell

I was thinking 8-speed or 9-speed on 130mm

canopus 

Yeah, that you will probably have to build. might be better to see if a friends 700c wheel will allow your brakes to reach and if so, just make the switch to 700.

Miele Man

I have two Miele bicycles that originally had 27" wheels. One is converted to a road touring bike with cantilever brakes and 700C x 300mm tires. With the 30mm tires I can fit fenders too.

The other is a Tange Infinty frameset that's also converted to 700C wheels. I can run fenders if I keep to 25mm tires. I can't recall if I can run fenders with 28mm tires. I know that I can't run fenders with 30mm tires.

The long reach brakes on the Tange Infinity frameset were Shimano 600 EX Arabesque and worked fine with quite positive braking.

Cheers

Miele Man

What bike do you have? An advantage to converting to 700C wheels is more clearance for tires, and or a far better choice of and availability of tires.

If I were going to the trouble of getting a new rear wheel, I'd definitely look at 700C wheels.

Cheers

LawsonMitchell

I just like good braking. I do not like the Tektro 559 Long Reach & Shimano Long Reach Brakes. The frame is a 57cm Roy Thame in Reynolds 531. I want dual pivot for braking.

Miele Man

Then buy long reach dual-pivot brake calipers.

Cheers

LawsonMitchell

I haven't found any that work well under hard braking. Any recommendations?

rccardr 

559’s with Kool Stop pads do the trick for me. And we have real hills (with real steep downhills) around here.

But if you really want nice 27” wheels, what good rims are out there? If you can find good rims, building a new wheelset is pretty simple.
I mean, If I can do it, well....

canopus 

It isn't about the brakes, it's about the pads you use. KoolStop salmon or Scott Mathauser salmon are the go to pads for braking. I can take any brake made and adjust them properly for braking. Adjust the spring and use lined cable and no matter the brake decade you get good feeling brakes. Even Raleigh Steel calipers would feel good when adjusted properly and using those pads.

I never did understand the need for dual pivot this or delta that.... Always seemed to me if you needed all that stuff to stop you didn't know how to adjust your brakes properly. Mountain/mud/dirty water needs notwithstanding..

LawsonMitchell

Installed KoolStop Salmon on the original Shimano 500 single pivots. It will be a while before I can test them. Will report back here when the bike is reassembled.