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#1
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700c wheels on frame meant for 27" wheels
I have an old Oyama road bike with 27" wheels that are beyond repair.
Can one replace the damaged 27" 5-speed rear wheelset with a modern 700c 9-speed rear wheelset?. If the 700c can't fit, can one remove the 9-speed to use the old 5-speed? Will the narrow 9-speed chain fit the double chain-rings? Replacing the front 27" with a 700c should be pretty straightforward, except of course, the brakes will need to be replaced too. Thank you. |
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#2
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700c wheels on frame meant for 27" wheels
A shy person asked:
I have an old Oyama road bike with 27" wheels that are beyond repair. Can one replace the damaged 27" 5-speed rear wheelset with a modern 700c 9-speed rear wheelset?. There are two issues: Width and diameter. 5-speed wheels/frames usually are 120 mm wide where the axle fits into the frame. 8- and 9-speed road wheels/frames are 130 mm wide. It is not difficult to re-space an older steel frame to work with modern hubs. See: http://sheldonbrown.com/frame-spacing.html The other issue is the diameter. 700c wheels are 8 mm smaller in diameter, so you'll need to lower the brake shoes by 4 mm. Many bikes/brakes will have sufficient adjustment range available for this. You can generally tell just by looking at where the brake shoe is mounted in the caliper arm. If it won't go down far enough, you may have a problem. Older brakes tended to be longer than newer ones, and if your old ones are not long enough, it may be difficult to find anything that will fit. If the 700c can't fit, can one remove the 9-speed to use the old 5-speed? Will the narrow 9-speed chain fit the double chain-rings? It will fit, but may be slow to catch on the smaller chainring when downshifting, especially if you downshift the front while in one of the outermost rear sprockets. Replacing the front 27" with a 700c should be pretty straightforward, except of course, the brakes will need to be replaced too. The brakes are the main issue, but, as mentioned above, _usually_ they don't need to be replaced, just re-adjusted. Then again, 27 inch stuff is not actually extinct. See: http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/wheels.html Sheldon "630/622" Brown +---------------------------------------------+ | Life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and | | smiles, with sniffles predominating. | | --O. Henry | +---------------------------------------------+ Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041 http://harriscyclery.com Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com |
#3
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700c wheels on frame meant for 27" wheels
kak61 wrote:
I have an old Oyama road bike with 27" wheels that are beyond repair. Can one replace the damaged 27" 5-speed rear wheelset with a modern 700c 9-speed rear wheelset?. If the 700c can't fit, can one remove the 9-speed to use the old 5-speed? Will the narrow 9-speed chain fit the double chain-rings? Replacing the front 27" with a 700c should be pretty straightforward, except of course, the brakes will need to be replaced too. A similar 27" wheel not only costs far less but you may then reuse your rubber, skewer, chain and gear system, avoiding several purchases. As you note, possibly even the brakes might need to be changed if you change wheel formats. If you actually want to chnge to 9speed that's a different (and expensive) discussion apart from fixing your immediate problem. -- Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April, 1971 |
#4
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700c wheels on frame meant for 27" wheels
As always where men on 2 wheels are concerned you will get different opinions,
but fwiw... I changed the 27" wheels on an old ('75 or so) Viscount to 700c, and also changed the brakes. Changing the brakes on the front was easy (because I also changed the fork) but changing them on the rear was difficult -- it took awhile until I found rear brakes with a long enough reach. Sheldon and others (who know much more than I do about bikes) may give articulate reasons for sticking with 27" is a good idea, or why old brakes are as good as new ones, my subjective experience is: 1. The combo of new wheels and new brake was fantastic -- zowie! The bike seems to ride way better. Perhaps modern 27" wheels would have the same result. 2. The brakes were wayyy improved. And I mean the brakes (the cables and housings were already new, so they are not a factor here). IMO, modest Shimano 105 is dramatically better than old GB's. And very likely modern wheel rims stop a lot better than old ones. - Charles |
#5
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700c wheels on frame meant for 27" wheels
"kak61" wrote in message ... I have an old Oyama road bike with 27" wheels that are beyond repair. Can one replace the damaged 27" 5-speed rear wheelset with a modern 700c 9-speed rear wheelset?. If the 700c can't fit, can one remove the 9-speed to use the old 5-speed? Will the narrow 9-speed chain fit the double chain-rings? Replacing the front 27" with a 700c should be pretty straightforward, except of course, the brakes will need to be replaced too. This might be what you need for the front brake http://sheldonbrown.com/dpdropbolt.html |
#6
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700c wheels on frame meant for 27" wheels
On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 12:32:35 +0800, kak61 wrote:
I have an old Oyama road bike with 27" wheels that are beyond repair. .... I have done exactly what you are contemplating (i.e., 5 - 9 speed), but let me suggest that you may have more fun with this (and spend a lot less money) if you go in the OTHER direction - to fixed gear and/or single speed, assuming your frame has horizontal rear dropouts, which it probably does. Here's your chance. Instead of messing around, just replace the rear wheel with one built for this purpose (i.e., with a proper fixed/single hub with a left-threaded lock ring and proper axle nuts). You'll probably also want to spring for a new chain. Such a conversion doesn't cost that much, and you won't even need a rear brake. Plus you can get rid of all that old kludgy shifting apparatus. You can stick with 27 inch wheels, and have fewer things to worry about - there are still a few decent tires available in this size. There's tons of info on this on Sheldon Brown's site. The hardest part will probably be getting a straight chain line, which can usually be achieved by fiddling with the bottom bracket and /or chainrings. Perfect thing to do with an old road bike, IMO. |
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