27 x 1 1/4" Rims

Looking for 27 x 1 1/4″ Rims for your trusty vintage bike? We stock these old gems, even though they are increasingly rare.

These rims were somewhat of a standard for road bikes & touring bikes back in the 1970s & 1980s. And of course exceedingly common in the 1930s too.

But these days you will have trouble finding replacement rims for bikes with this wheel size. But as our warehouse is stocked with bicycle parts from one of the largest & longest standing suppliers in the industry, we have them.

You will always find the parts you need for your vintage bike restoration in our warehouse. And if you are having trouble finding the exact component you need, get in touch with us.

We are the friendly folks at Abbotsford Cycles and we have been servicing & repairing vintage bikes for over 30 years. There is nothing the mechanics in our workshop haven’t seen! So give us a shout if you think you will need help choosing the right parts for your vintage wheelset.

Not only do we have 27 x 1 1/4″ Rims, but we also have tyres & complete wheels in this size if you need them too!

When it comes to building wheels you’re going to roll around to the rim choice quite a bit. Because your choice here determines the strength of your build, and the kind of tyres you’ll be able to run.

Another factor in your choice will be the join type, whether there are eyelets for distributing the weight & the hole count.

But let’s not make things too complicated too soon – let’s start with the basics of wheels here.

Choosing a rim – the width

When it comes to rim’s the internal width is a major factor. The internal width is where your tyre bead will sit, and the width determines the size of tyre you can run on it.

You will find rims from 17mm to 40mm width in our warehouse. This accounts for skinny road tyres (think 25c-32c) up to mountain bike & fat bike tyres (anything from 2.1″ to 4.0″).

So if you are running 35c tyres on your commuter bike, you will need something like a 17mm internal width rim. If you run 2.5″ tyres on your mountain bike then 32mm internal width rim is for you.

Choosing the rim – the height

But the width isn’t the only thing to think about with rims. It’s also the rim depth (or how ‘tall’ the rim is). Deeper, taller rims are more aerodynamic but they are also stiffer & stronger. Being a larger profile rim there is more material to resist the torsional forces enacted on the wheel.

So you will find a deeper rim (often called “deep dish”) is a more expensive rim, and a higher quality too. If you want to upgrade your road bike wheelset you would generally choose a deep dish rim.

Choosing a rim – the spoke count

Spoke counts on wheels have reached a pretty ‘standard’ number at 32. So it’s very likely you will be looking at a 32 spoke wheel on any modern bicycle.

But different numbers of spokes still exist – because they determine how strong the wheel is. More spokes makes for a stronger, stiffer wheel as there are more points of stability. Your 36h rim is stronger than a 32h.

For this reason if you have an electric bike wheel or a downhill bike wheel or a cargo bike wheel you are likely to have more spokes. These wheels are doing more work under load, and need to be stronger for this.

We would always recommend choosing a higher spoke count wheel if you are loading the wheel up with a lot of weight. Or are creating a lot of weight with a lot of downward or lateral forces like enduro or downhill riding.