The 32" Watch: What Have We Learned?

From Maxxis' social media

Sea Otter is over. All the news of big wheels has been spilled. What have we learned now the cats are out of their bags? 

The long known rumors were mostly proven to be true. There is a 32" Fargo. Maxxis did actually produce more tread patterns in 32". Other tires were introduced. (Teravail, Kenda) 

But there were disappointments. No one was racing a 32"er at Sea Otter in the gravel event. There were small brands/builders showing 32"ers, but no real hints of which second tier, or main brands, which might be toying with the idea of producing a 32"er. At least no rumors are being spread openly. I'm sure some folks came away from Sea Otter with hints and perhaps news, sworn to secrecy. 

Sun Tour openly showed its 32"er suspension fork. This would indicate we will see an entry level MTB bike, at least, with 32"er wheels. Ari Bikes, (Formerly known as Fezzari), showed an FS 32"er prototype with a prototype Fox 32"er fork. Probably to gauge interest, but this also could be a pointing to an OE order which would, in turn, point to a mid-tier MTB offering, at least. 

Image courtesy of Teravail

Comments: Salsa Cycles Fargo in 32 will come in a size small. This was a surprise as it is commonly held that a medium is about as small as one can reasonably get with 32" wheels. The geometry chart for the size small Fargo 32 shows this just may be correct, as the stack height on the small with 32" wheels is going to lead to very upright seated positions for small sized riders. Probably not ideal. So, besides potential toe overlap issues, I think size medium is the lower limit of sizing for 32" wheels. 

Things seem to be moving along at blazing speed when it comes to 32"ers, but remember, 29 inch came into being right at the end of the Analog Age, and 29"er development broke the ceiling of bicycle design which 32" wheels do not have to hinder their development. 

You can see this in the nearly instantaneous offering of several tires. We don't even have bikes available in mass quantities to put these tires on, not to mention rims, yet tire rolling resistance testing has already been done showing glowing results for 32"ers. 

29"ers grew in a grassroots, organic way. Slowly, and yet sooilidly forming a base to help manufacturers see there was a buying public for the wheel size. The 32"er smacks of a more "manufactured" story, with lots of rave results from tests, but with barely any kind of organic feel to these results. There is a very harsh blowback in comments sections regarding 32"ers, but maybe this won;t matter in the end. 

But maybe it will.

Image courtesy of Teravail

Bicycle shops, distributors, and some brands will be resistant to having another tire size to deal with. This resistance was felt with 29"ers, but the difference there was 29"ers used an existing rim size. Obviously, this is not the case for 32"ers. 

My feeling is that once all the folks who want 32"ers have 32"ers, we will see a marked decline in interest. I do not believe 32"ers will diappear as quickly as they arrived, and perhaps something of a small, niche element of the size will hang on for years, like 27" wheels and tires have. But I firmly believe the industry will, in the end, winnow out one of the current wheel sizes. 

My take is this will be the 32"ers. My belief is the market for the size is limited to taller folks while medium to smaller sized folk will be best served by 29"ers, despite all the recent testing results for 32"ers. The 32" diameter is just a bit too big for many things other than small to some medium sized folk. I think we'll be seeing this in the near future as well. 

And 27.5", while diminished in popularity, will be great for youth and "smaller" small adults. So, I do not believe 27.5" is the size the industry will ax out of existence either. I could be wrong, but looking at what has come out of Sea Otter, and from my observations in the cycling world over a long period of time, I would say my vision of how the 32"er will go forward is closer to the mark than not.