Hi List, I think Russ Fitzgerald, hit the nail on the head with the Raleigh Bicycle Company (English speaking countries) connection of inventing the "lightweight" 27" inch wheel size for their own bicycles and creating another stardard (market) for sport touring and entry level bicycles. But many early 1970's French bicycles,Gitane Grand Prix & Gitane Hosteler also used the 27" wheelsets (RIGIDA STEEL RIMS) on the entry level models. The high end touring model by Gitane the "Gran Tourisme", had alloy MAVIC RIMS 27 X 1 1/4" and was a Reynolds 531 model frameset,Campagnolo equipped.So here we have a "continental" bicycle with 27" wheels.What gives........ I guess to paraphrase TOM SANDERS INITIAL QUESTION could: WHEN WAS THE 27" WHEEL INVENTED.....,if the 700C was around for 80 years....Nothing in bicycles is new it seems,it's all been done to one extent or the other over the years,gets pulled out of the bin and reinvented. Steven Maasland states the 700C size has been around for eighty years.... I was surprised to find 700C rims on an old,1955 Swiss three speed I own,called RENA RAD. It is all original except the tires but sports alloy 700C Rims,badged RENA ,along with alloy fenders and chainguard and a neat lugged steel,box lined frame set and upright bars.......it is my going to the "Metro" (subway) commuter bicycle. My 1971 Gitane Interclub came with 700C tubulars and would except only one 27 inch wheel so I was glad to see the 700C Weinnman clinchers in 1976 and had a set built back then and they are still on my Gitane(s). It seems like all Department store bikes had either 27" or 26" wheel sizes back in the early 1970's when I worked at E.J. Korvettes and Montgomery Wards building bicycles. Thank goodness we had a BIG WHEEL BICYCLE store in the Mall to see what real Italian racing bicycles looked like! There was no comparison between the department store bicycles and even the low end Fuji's sold at Big Wheel Bikes back in the early 1970's from my experience in Northern Virginia.You got what you paid for and you could never make a $69.00 Montgomery Ward bicycle anything more than that, a "cheap bike". Time to cut the grass! Cirque report forthcoming! Thanks again to Dale Brown and the Crew (Ken Toda & Scott Ramsay), down in Greensboro, for a great time at Cirque 2006 ! Looking forward already to Cirque X (ten) Yours truly, Marty Walsh in HUMID, Vienna,Va