The year is 2035. Bristol is underwater. Russ of Path Less Pedaled has curated the world’s slowest “alt” bike complete with 1000% gear range, pedaled off into the mountains of Girona, and nobody’s heard from him in two years. And 32-inch wheels have taken over the world:
I’ve been seeing headlines about 32-inch wheels for awhile, but instead of reading about them I’ve simply chosen to ignore them in the hope that they’ll go away, like that weird mole you refuse to acknowledge. But sooner or later you’ve got to go to the dermatologist, and so recently I decided to educate myself:
Basically, what I’ve learned is that the 32-inch wheel is “the next big revolution” and it’s “coming to bikes of all sizes:”
It appears the next big revolution to hit the cross-country scene is 32in tyres, with KTM the latest brand to test the wheel size out at the UCI World Cup.
The Austrian brand’s Project Sixty Four was tested in Lenzerheide and is said to be part of a development collaboration with Mavic.
In a post on Instagram, KTM says the wheel size is for “every rider, no matter their size. Not just for the giants among us”.
So it seems 32in wheels will be coming to bikes of all sizes.
I also learned that, like a 29-inch wheel, a 32-inch wheel is round. However, unlike a 29-inch wheel, it’s a 32-inch wheel. This makes it larger. How larger? This larger:
What I didn’t learn is exactly why it needs to be larger. I mean yes, I understand generally why mountain bike wheels have gotten larger (they “roll over stuff better” as we used to say) but I don’t understand why specifically they need to be this larger, as opposed to the already larger (at least than 26 and 27.5) 29er, and even more larger 29+–and on “bikes of all sizes” no less, not just custom bikes for NBA players and other vertically advantaged genetic freaks. Also, I don’t know how it compares to 750d, which was also larger (but is it larger or smaller than a 32? I have no idea), or for that matter if 750d is even still a thing:
None of this is to say I’m against larger wheels or even changes in wheel standards. I’m old enough to remember when 29ers happened, and while I wasn’t exactly an early adopter I wasn’t one of those 26-inch holdouts either (yes, there was a time in my life when I still accepted new things), and I was the first person in my riding circle to put together a 29er, sometime in the mid-aughts. Here it is in its later years, though it started life as a rigid singlespeed:
I sold the frame and the fork to someone on Craigslist a couple years ago and a few months later he sent me photos of the bike completely rebuilt with a new paint job and everything. So I’m glad it’s gotten a new lease on life.
Anyway, I immediately found that the larger wheels did in fact “roll over stuff better,” especially on a rigid singlespeed. I also found that people continued to resist 29-inch wheels for quite a while; I even recall going to the 2008 Singlespeed World Championships in Napa, CA:
Where the founder of a storied mountain bike company that is still flourishing to this day shrugged them off as “wagon wheels.”
By the way, is there any sport more thrilling than ironic singlespeed racing?
Of course there isn’t. Nothing’s more exciting than watching drunk people walking their bikes in the sun.
I also wholeheartedly embraced 27.5+, first with the Marin Pine Mountain:
And then the Jones SWB:
Before moving on to the even bigger-wheeled 29+ Jones LWB:
After riding both bikes for a while I decided I liked the 29+ bike a little better overall, though now that I look at that SWB I really miss it. Alas, I gave it away in a contest to someone who was going to use it to undertake an extremely ambitious trip…
…which it turns out they never undertook. I admit I’m disappointed, but what am I gonna do, repossess the bike? Anyway, I learned an important lesson, which is to never part with a bike away unless you’re getting cash in return.
Which reminds me I should probably check in with the winner. Hopefully he hasn’t catapulted himself into orbit.
All of this is to say that despite being a resolute contrarian I can be surprisingly tolerant–not just of people who win bikes from me and don’t follow through with their crazy adventures, but also of different wheelsizes, so if 32 is the new 29 then so be it. And now that disc brakes are the standard I suppose we’re on the cusp of bicycle rims and tires coming in 1-inch increments like they do on cars…unless the UCI bans 32-inch wheels I guess, but maybe that matters less with mountain bikes than it does with road bikes.
As long as I can still get new 29+ tires for my Jones I don’t really care…though to be honest I’m kind of scared to check.