Date: Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:26:40 -0500
From: "Daniel Artley" <dartley@baltimorecountymd.gov>
To: "Classic Rendezvous" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: Re: [CR] 700c Time-Line
I'd thought 700c wired on rims predated my riding 'ten speeds' in the sixties, but I first began using them with the new 'CyclePro' 700 x 23 tires with the raised bead and 'S' tread in the center around 1978. I'd had my custom tourer built to accept 700c and 27" wheels with the Campagnolo brakes. My older 27" wheels were running the Dunlop HP's and the 700c's which I'd built for that bike had those hard riding narrow higher pressure wired on tires. They sure were lighter and made for a quicker ride. I think those newer really light tires were the reason 700c rims really started to take off around that time. The Kevlar beaded tires really lightened them up. And combined with the dramatic rise in the cost of good tubulars, a lot of people really gravitated to the 700c. It's not "Just the facts ma'am." but my impression.
Happy trails,
Dan Artley in Parkton, Maryland
Archive-URL: Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2010 00:20:16 +0000 From: Norris Lockley <nlockley73(AT)googlemail.com>Subject: [CR] 700c Time-Line ( http://search.bikelist.org/query.asp?SearchString=%22700c+Time%2DLine%22&SearchPrefix=%40msgsubject&SortBy=MsgDate%5Ba%5D )Perhaps we were all very naive back in the late 40s and early 50..and through to the 60s...some of us. ... 700c HP (clincher rims) did not make too big an impact, as I recall, until sometime in the mid-to-late 70s, coinciding with the influx of Peugeot, Motobecane, Lejeune bikes. At first many of these were Anglicised ie equipped in the factory with 27 inch wheels for the UK market..but then , when well established on the UK market, the makers just sent over the standard 700c -equipped machines. However I remember that well into the 80s I was receiving orders for touring frames, in particular, and some club frames with 27inch wheels. Eventually it was the shortage of good rims in the 27 dimension, particularly with 40 holes and the lack of availability of good tyres, that reluctant English riders finally adopted the 700c wheel and tyre combination and..the 36 hole hubs. ...Norris Lockley Settle UK.