On the way home from work last evening I bought two bikes.Both are Western Flyers. One is a ladies model 5 speed and one a man's ten speed, with fenders and upright handlebars.This morning , seeing them in the daylight and after some cleaning I realized that the man's bike has 27" wheels/tires on it. It is the first I have bought with 27s.The tires will have to be replaced on it. Unfortunatley I can't read any numbers on letters on the sidewalls.Now I need to figure out exactly what tires to buy . I have looked at some of the info on here , including the late Sheldon Brown's charts.Any advice will be welcome.Thanks. :?:
My first with 27" wheels/tires
- Thread starter thom
- Start date
Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:
27x1-1/4" probably. there's some nice ones, Duro brand on Ebay. the seller sells you rim strips, tubes and tires by the pair for a decent price. I bought the white walls and they are a good tire (90 psi).
Thanks. I'll look into that. I brought the bikes to work with me today and tinkered with them on my lunch hour.The rims are stamped 27 x 1 1/4 and the tires have wire in the bead.I found some 27s on here for $4.00 each.I'm looking forward to riding this bike. Thanks again. 8)
These two bikes have quite a few "firsts" for me.The men's is my first 27", my first ten speed with fenders, and the first with a working generator/headlight .The ladie's is the first five speed with a two cable, twist grip shifter.The push-pull shifter is not working , so that will be a learning experience when I attemtp to fix it. 8)
Joy, joy, I put new tires on the 27" bike today, on my lunch hour at work and rode the bike for about 30 minutes.It rides well but needs some fine tuning ,I suppose.One problem though, It will not shift into the lowest gear on the rear ( the largest sprocket). It seems that the sprocket is too big in diameter and hits the small gear on the derailler.Possibly the chain has been shortened a few links .It will be rideable as is if I can live without low gear.Now I plan to work on the speed. The first task will be to figure out the two-cable shifting. 8)
I brought the 27" bike home and rode approx another half-hour.It will now shift into low gear.The headlight works better than any generator powered ones that I've had before. Then, my front axle broke. It broke about an inch from one end. I guess that I failed to get the "lock" nuts tight enough when I reassembled the axle after cleaning and regreasing the bearings. I suppose that the adjustments tightened while I rode and twisted the axle in two.I have removed the axle from a junker and will install it tomorrow.Guess I'll have to invest in the right wrenches for axles and such. 
