You may have success with a variety of steel frames initially built for 27" wheels and caliper brakes. I've successfully converted three such frames to 700x32-38 with Tektro 559 or 539 caliper brakes. I'm 6'5" and because of the difficulty in finding tall enough frames I've been entirely opportunistic for such projects but still have 2 of the 3 conversions essentially serving collectively as stand-ins for a Roadini/Hillborne/Homer/Quickbeam. Mine are all lower end models with non-premium tubesets so not exactly comparable to the more desirable models with higher end steel but they still function the same for my purposes.
A word of caution if you find yourself considering any lower end frames you find locally that many take JIS headsets with 30.0 cups and 27.0 crown race (vs. 30.2 cups and 26.4 crown currently more common) One of my many lessons during my own evolution as a DIY bike tinkerer. Not an issue if you find something with a good/serviceable headset and you'll stick with the stock fork, of course. My 700c conversions were on the following frames (in order of acquisition:) '87 Schwinn Traveler / '83 Schwinn Traveler / late 70's mystery Raleigh 'DeLuxe' import from Denmark. The '87 Schwinn was a curbside freebie and my own gateway into DIY bike tinkering. Turns out this one was rather crudely constructed (headtube was admittedly pretty cool after discovering it's a faux-lugged single cast piece but the top and downtubes weren't even mitred and just brazed in and smashed/bent for steerer clearance. '83 Schwinn Traveler is Taiwan made by Giant and has much cleaner construction, fits me better being a 27" frame size vs. the 25" '87 Traveler which was big enough with long stem and drops but ended up cracking seatstay on the '87 anyway. It's kind of interesting comparing these two Travelers side by side. Both of these 80's Schwinns had 126mm rear spacing, JIS headsets, typical 68mm british bottom bracket shells. '87 had semi-horizontal dropouts with derailer tab and downtube lever bosses with bolt on under bottom bracket cable guide. The earlier '83 Traveler has no derailer tab and clamp on downtube shifter bosses, and brazed on cable guides on the top of the BB shell. I picked up a bolt on derailer mount to eventually be able to run a multispeed wheel from the wheel I had upgraded on the '87 Schwinn but otherwise have been running the '83 as a single speed/Quickbeam substitute in the interim and had considered making this a IGH build instead with the lack of derailer tab and brazed on BB cable guide... also as a 3spd replacement since my mystery Raleigh project completely caught me by surprise. I won't get into the weeds with this one here since it's not necessarily relevant to your search but The Raleigh was bought cheap with little more than a few photos showing a large frame with locking fork. It was intended to be a frame replacement/upsize to just move a typical 3sp build from a too small 21" frame Raleigh Sports into the larger frame I found. Turns out the frame was even larger than I initially thought and easily fits 700x35 - likely 38mm with fender if I could add some clearance to the chainstays, but vertical clearance with current 35mm and Tektro brakes is nearly 2cm. I've essentially made this my commuter/lock-up/basket bike (I don't have a commute but this is the one I grab for any utility riding.) Probably worth checking out any local co-ops or bike kitchens in your area. Central New Jersey area has Second Life Bikes in Asbury Park and in Trenton there is the Boys and Girls Club Bike Exchange that both run on donations/volunteer support. I used to have an office within a 15min ride of Second Life Bikes in Asbury where I'd make an occasional lunch hour trip to both drop off parts donations or dig through the parts bins for anything specific in need (and successfully found necessary seatposts/stems/levers on several occasions plus the 27" '83 Schwinn I just happened to spot hanging in the rafters one day.) Best of luck! Brian Cole Lawrence NJ On Wednesday, September 15, 2021 at 11:45:29 AM UTC-4 Yankeebird wrote: > I would like a Roadini, but it's going to be a while, and I'm going > through some money constraints right now, and I don't mind fixing up > something else in the interim. I have a Cheviot right now, and it's my > primary main bike for everything. I also have a Surly CC that I built up > with an Alfine IGH 8 and Albatross bars, but I keep that at Mom's so when > my bro and I visit we have a bike to bang around on to blow off steam. > > I would really like a decent smooth steel frame that will take at least a > 32-38 tire, and I can build up either with another IGH/albatross or a > cassette and drop bars depending on my whims. Something zippier than my > Cheviot but not a straight up triathlon bike. > > I'd like to get my hands on a '86 Schwinn Passage (my brother has this > bike and it's an incredible) or an early/mid 80's Trek 720. But these > things are going for PREMIUM money, almost ridiculous. I value them as > $200-300 bikes, but they are listed at $800+ and it boggles my mind. > > Any other comparable frames to the above two I mentioned that I should be > looking at? What about Motobecanes? Do they have standard sizing for > components or am I going to be banging my head against the wall finding > French sized parts? > > Biking is something I enjoy, and I can do basic bike MX and can learn the > stuff I don't know, but I am not deep in the weeds of dorkdom when it comes > to bikes. I have other much deeper passions. I probably won't build a > wheel, but I can replace a BB. I know what I like and what I want when I > see it, if I'm pointed in the correct direction by those who know. Hence > this query. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/00cfc4d7-2646-4650-996a-157798540be1n%40googlegroups.com.
