Put a magnet on the rim and if it sticks it is steel, if not it is likely aluminum. Not that it makes any difference in a practical sense. Make sure you put some new brake pads on the bike if yours are old and hard. I vote for the Pasela brand tires too as I have put quite a few miles on a set of them in 27" size and they have worked great. Also the one post is right about the current trend for road bikes towards fat tires, most of the latest bikes are running 1 1/4" tires again, which is the equivalent of 32mm. So what is old has become popular again. I kept the 1 1/4" size on my 27" bike.