Why did road bike wheels shrink?

[Andrew_Culture]

I've been struggling to get the tyres I wanted for my ancient tourer because it has 27" wheels, and I guess most tourers and road bikes have 700s (whatever size they are).

So I know MTB wheels got bigger for speed and comfort, so why did road bike wheels get smaller?


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[Deleted member 20519]

700c wheels are actually 27.5 inches

Edit: I'm silly.

 

[mcshroom]

I think it was just a case of the French standard winning out over the English one

 

[psmiffy]

700c wheels are actually 27.5 inches

.

In which direction?

 

[biggs682]

as stated else where i prefer 27" wheeled equipped bike as they seem to offer me a more relaxed ride compared to newer 700 wheeled machines

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

In which direction?

Anticlockwise obviously.

 

[style over speed]

What tyre are you after? SJS have 10 from £6 to £35 each… I have an old claud butler with 27" wheels that needs new tyres and I can't decide what to get.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I was after Marathon Plus but settled for Marathons (this is a touring bike) .

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I've been struggling to get the tyres I wanted for my ancient tourer because it has 27" wheels, and I guess most tourers and road bikes have 700s (whatever size they are).

So I know MTB wheels got bigger for speed and comfort, so why did road bike wheels get smaller?


__________________________________________________________________________________
Sent from.... ACHQ

The bontrager race lite hard cases are available in 27" size.

http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/product/119612.html

 

[andrew_s]

700c wheels were always more popular on bikes used for racing because they are the same size as the sprint rims used for tubulars. If you used 27" rims, you had to adjust your brakes each time you put your best racing wheels in.
With the advent of the mountain bike the mass market drop handlebar bikes vanished quite quickly because the standard 52/42x14-28 gearing was too high for the normal joe public. With the loss of the mass market, road bikes swung more towards actual racing bikes.