Wileyone 

Looking at my Map, I am not sure how we got from Toronto to the Yukon so fast...

Or were you trying to be funny?

SurferRosa

It's not me. It's the Yukon.

Wilfred Laurier

The fact that they are obsolete is exactly why there is a thread devoted to the available sizes, and why that thread is in the Classic and Vintage sub instead of the New and Current sub.
Notice that there is no such thread about 700c tires... because they are not obsolete - you could rightly expect to walk into any retailer and have a selection of 700c tires. 27" wheel bikes are no longer sold in most of the world. The selection of available spares is getting smaller and smaller, which is the whole point of the thread - go back and read the OP if you don't believe me. Maybe 27" will be resurrected some time in the future, as has happened with 650B, but until then, 27" wheels are obsolete and, with vanishingly few exceptions, only used on classic and vintage bikes.



Please work on your reading comprehension. I said 'many' of the surviving fleet of 27" wheel bikes are junk, not that all or even most are junk. 'Many' in no way precludes that there are examples that do not fit my description. Way to misunderstand and take it personally, though! I hope I didn't offend your old bikes

thumpism 

27" tires were difficult to find in deepest France in 1974. I had to take a train to a larger city in order to find any. Plus ça change....

SurferRosa

I don't think that's the right word to use. You can still buy new 27" rims as well.

Wilfred Laurier

There are a small number of replacement parts available, but the list is getting shorter all the time, and there are no new bikes coming out with that size. I stand by the term 'obsolete'.

ThermionicScott 

You can still buy parts for Model T's. But this is the C&V forum, where the search for replacement parts for old bikes ought to be honored and assisted rather than scorned.

T-Mar

Obsolete is a somewhat subjective term. 27" tyres and rims can be considered obsolete in that they are no longer being offered as OEM on new bicycles. However, some members are reluctant to use the term, so long as the industry is manufacturing them for the replacement market. The 27" offerings continue to dwindle every year, though they're not yet to the point where they can be considered reproductions from a cottage industry.

Since 27" tyres and rims are no longer being manufactured specifically for the bicycle manufacturing companies, I prefer "OEM obsolete" or "OEM discontinued". This conveys that 27" tire and rims are no longer being manufactured for new bicycles but are still being provided by some companies in the industry as replacement items.

While I never considered them junk, I've always had difficulty considering 27" to be a high grade product. When I started in the industry during the early 1970s bicycle boom, there was a fairly clear division. Entry level bicycles had 27" steel rims while high grade bicycles had tubulars. There was a bit of a crossover in the lower mid-range where you would could find some bicycles with 27" aluminum rims, but they weren't that common. After, the boom, high performance 700C (i.e. box section, hooked edge rims as opposed to traditional 700C) became popular and started taking over from tubulars on the mid-range sport and racing models. By this point 27" aluminum rims were used primarily on touring bicycles and were starting to trickle down into the entry level. I know that 27" was used on some racing machines as far back as the 1930s, and that here were high performance 27" since the late 1970s, but I just didn't see very much of them. Consequently, it's hard for me to disassociate 27" with entry level, when they hardly ventured outside that category, except on on touring bicycles and even that was a relatively short lived period of about a decade.

Narhay

Just for some closure I ended sucking it up and spending my lunch money to make up the difference at MEC on some blackwall Kendas.

I checked Canadian Tire recently to see if they had any but no. I think they will exist for a long time but fewer and fewer places, especially larger retailers, will stock them.

madpogue 

I find it interesting that Canadian Tire stocks bicycle tires at all. You walk into any "tire retailer" here, and ask about bicycle tires, they'll look at you like you have antennae sticking out of your head. Here, "tire retailer" very emphatically means _automotive_ tires.

BTW, what's MEC?

FBOATSB

https://www.mec.ca/en/

Phil_gretz

Finding parts is easy to do. But you have to pay. Someone posted about Paselas in 27", but they're $25 per tire delivered. That won't work for the OP, because he stipulated "flip" in his opening sentence. It's finding cheap parts for a flip that can be problematic. Hence the need for donor bikes, scrounging and hoarding parts.

T-Mar

Canadian Tire started out as tyre retailer in the 1920s but has continually diversified over the over years. First came automotive parts, then hardware and sporting goods, garden products, home products, etc. Some stores even carry groceries. Add beer and they might become the only store necessary for middle aged Canadian males.

Their entry into the retail bicycle industry goes back to at the autumn of 1937, when they introduced their Supercycle brand for the Christmas season. Over the years, Supercycle has been contract manufactured by several big names including, but not limited to, Bridgestone, CCM, Motobecane and Raleigh. Supercycle is a popular, inexpensive, "starter" brand in Canada. They also carry some names brands, such as Schwinn, but bicycle product rarely ventures beyond entry level.

MEC stands for Mountain Equipment Co-Op, a small Canadian chain geared towards outdoor recreational equipment, including bicycles.

SurferRosa

A good deal for a good tire.

Spending any cash on crap like Kendas, whether it's a flip or not, seems ridic when you can actually mount good and proper rubber.

T-Mar

While avid cyclists and members of this forum would appreciate the difference, the vast majority of consumers who purchase from flippers can't appreciate the difference between cheap, average and good tyres, and would be reluctant to pay the price difference. You're typically trying to sell to the lowest common denominator, especially when dealing with bicycle that has 27" wheels.

SurferRosa

Not me. I pay more respect to my builds.

But I know what you're saying.

Narhay

A bike worth maybe $250 with tires costing $50 usd is a fair chunk of a flip budget. I think the kendas are an acceptable alternative in this case.

Miele Man

Is that $25.00 each delivered to Canada?

I have two bicycles that use 27" tires and they're getting harder to find in shops hereabouts. Kind of opposite to when 700C tires were first being used. You had to go to a specialty shop to get a 700C tire and everyone carried 27" tires.

Cheers

Miele Man

When I looked at Canadian Tire for 27" t ires I didn't find any listed at all and it's been quite some time since I saw a 27" tire in a Canadian Tire store. I think they've dropped them in favour of 700C tires for hybrid bikes.

Cheers

Phil_gretz

eBay sellers. I'm not sure about their postage to the Great White North.

Dan Burkhart 

And yet they still carry 26 x 1 3/8.
Any shop with a Babac account has at least 10 27" tires to chose from from cheapo $15.00 ones all the way up to Schwalbe Marathon.