Originally Posted by
79pmooney
Question for Doug Fattic and cycling historians - weren't 27" tubular wheels and tires made for the British market in small amounts so those with 27" wheel frames could race and time trial? No, I am not suggesting setting up a bike now to do that. I'd be willing to own and ride a museum worthy frame, but not risk my life to museum worthy rubber (and finding 27" tubulars that old that are museum worthy - good luck!)
If they made an equivalent tubular size to a 27 X 1 1/4" tire, I never heard of them. British time trailing was a popular sport and cyclists would ride to the start of a race with their "training wheels" and then put on their lighter more fragile racing wheels for the time trial. I've always assumed those training wheels were tubular with just heavier rims and tires. Otherwise you would have to move the brake blocks. British cyclists tended to be poor so they had to take care of their good wheels. I'm not saying larger tubulars didn't exist, I just never heard of them.
I started riding tubulars in 1966/67. We even toured on them until the late 70's when lightweight 700C clinchers with Mavic rims and Michelin tires becomes available. 27 X 1 1/4" tires were heavy by comparison. I don't remember any light ones before the mid 70's but that doesn't mean they didn't exist.
When I went to the XB3 bicycle factory in Kharkov (a major Ukrainian city few people ever heard of until recently) in 2000. I was surprised they designated their tubular racing bike as having 27" wheels. Yes written just like that - 27".