The 27” was super popular in the 70s and 80s, possibly much earlier. Sometime in the late 70s, the 700 gained popularity on “serious” bikes. By the late 80s, the 700 was standard. The theory at the time was thinner tires resulted in a faster bike. When I got my first road bike in the late 90s it had 23mm tires. This was pretty normal back then. I remember a friend of mine strapped 19mm tires on his bike and they were absolutely terrible, but I thought they were awesome. He blew a tire out nearly every other week lol. But something happened that I was not expecting. Tires got wider, and wider. Wider tires sure do feel a ton better than 23mm clinchers and I’m told run faster. I’m not sure what the current trend is, but the current tires look damn close to what a 27 x 1 1/4 tires looked like, 32mm. So after several decades of R&D, we’ve basically produced a metric version of a tire that is supposedly outdated. Imo, the 27 x 1 1/4 was almost perfect as is.
by LowInternet4726
3 Comments
Im convinced that for the average cyclist the ideal tire size is 27 1 1/8 front and 27 1 1/4 rear . Or 28 front 32 rear on a 700c wheel.
Basically yes 27 1 1/4 was the perfect tire size
Are you a bot?
basically, yes.
wanna hear something that will make you even angrier? you know that “c” in “700c”?
it’s actually a *width*.
the logic was that the number told you total wheel diameter including the tire, and the letter told you which tire. oh, and “700” wasn’t even accurate. it was actually a rounded down metric conversion of 28″, which is why that wheel size is still sometimes called that. 28″ in mm is actually 711.2mm.
what width was “c”?
(711-622)/2=44.5mm
we reinvented gravel tires too.