32" wheels. Yea or nay?
Background
There’s been discussion in framebuilding circles (and beyond) about 32" wheels (although they’ve been around a while now) and whether there’s a market for bikes in this wheel size – or if it’s just bike industry hype.
My personal opinion is the market exists and if you’re over 6' in height and nearing 6' 5" or 6' 7" then this wheel size makes perfect sense as larger diameter wheels proportionally fit larger frame sizes better and create an overall improved riding experience. At Shand Cycles we had a significant number of customers in the 6' 5" plus range looking for custom options as they had difficulty finding production bikes to fit, but proportionally 700c / 29er wheels always looked a little odd – a little bit like how 26" MTB wheels used to look in extra large frames.
29er MTB wheel were not always the norm and I remember building a steel hardtail 29er before 29ers were widely available and vividly remember the feeling compared to a 26" wheel bike (I’m 6', 1"). It took a couple of rides to dial things in, but once I got used to the steering and what could be ridden over I was sold. My 26" Lappiere Zesty was also sold not long after.
HROK 32er
So on to today and I’ve finished building the bike shown above and taken it out for it’s first shakedown ride. The brief I set myself was to design a bike with 32" wheels that would be as close to my preferred hardtail setup of a short-ish wheelbase and XC geometry, but also to experiment a bit. It’s also worth noting that if I was to design a frame for someone shorter than 5' 10", I think there would be some real challenges.
I had originally intended to go with a rigid fork, but discovered Wren, a brand in the US who make reasonably priced inverted suspension forks that accept bigger diameter wheels with a little adjustment. They’re not the most sophisticated of forks as they’re intended for bike packing and serviceability in remote places, but they’re nice forks and really well thought-out and well-made. I opted for the 150mm fork that comes with spacers to reduce the travel to 120mm and prevent the tyre from hitting the crown. The shorter 110mm fork can also be adjusted to 80mm, but I figured that living in the Tweed Valley more travel is useful.
Rigid fork options with clearance that I’m currently aware of include Enve MTB Disc Carbon Fork and Columbus Futura Adventure (MTB) Fork. The Columbus fork should be well suited to a gravel bike build having a shorter axle to crown measurement.
I also figured the larger wheel diameter and longer fork would require a bit of reinforcement so added a brace between the down tube and top tube, and as I wanted to do a quick and dirty build used pre-bend tubing (7000 series Dedacciai aluminium) for the stays. Fortunately, all the tubes were long enough with chainstays providing plenty of tyre clearance without having to resort to a yolk. The seat stays are a bit tight, however, and would require manipilation on future builds. The key stats for the build are as follows based on my height of 186cm (6' 1"):
Reach — 440mm
Stack — 650mm
Head angle — 65.5°
Wheel base — 1200mm
Rear Centre — 460mm
Trail — 130mm
BB drop — 100mm
Tyre – Maxxis Aspen 2.4" (outside diameter 813mm)
Rims – Ryde Aluminium 30mm x 32" (ISO 686, 667mm ERD)
Full bike weight – 13kg (could be reduced to 12.5kg with better spokes).
Frame weight – 1.75kg
How does it ride?
Amazing.
I was really surprised and had a slight concern I’d built a dog of a bike and had second thoughts I’d made it far too slack for the size of wheel. As I write this I’ve only been on a tentative shakedown ride but it feels extraordinarily ‘normal’ and only took 10 minutes to get the feel of it. I thought it might be a bit ‘lumbering’ but it’s easy to turn and extremely nimble. It also feels like it climbs well too, but I didn’t ride anything particularly steep or technical.
They main point of larger diameter wheels is to smooth out the lumpy stuff (which they do effectively), but the most noticeable aspect in my opinion is the grip. It’s been really wet this month with weeks of constant rain since New Year (making local trails completely saturated) and I’d usually be cautious about washing out in tight fast turns. However, with big wheels things felt really secure and I was grinning with the growing confidence – although the Apens are not particularly agressive and may be lacking on steeper, more techincal trails.
The other sensation is it feels like you’re sitting ‘in’ the bike rather than ‘on’ it. Very much as if the centre of gravity is much lower (wheel diameter is 70mm taller than a 29er MTB wheel making the BB 30-35mm lower than the axle height).
Yea or nay?
Definately a ‘yea!’
It’s only been one ride but I’m sold on the 32er concept and can’t wait to ride more technical trails, of which there’s no lack of round here. I’m also going to lend the bike to taller pals to get their feedback and incorporate thoughts and ideas into a more sophisticated build. It’s also early days for options around wheel builds, but more tyre, rim and spoke options are apparently in development from various manufacturers.
I’m also keen to do a gravel / off-road tourer in this wheel size, so watch this space. I’ll post more thoughts here once I’ve lived with it for a bit to see what works well, and more importantly what doesn’t once the initial cheese-eating grin starts to wear off!