32” MTB frames or wheelsets yet?

[boernei]

Hey folks,
just curious — has anyone seen any carbon MTB frames or wheelsets for 32-inch setups yet? I know 29ers are still the standard, but I’ve seen a few experiments with 32” floating around and was wondering if any of the Chinese brands are already playing with that size.
Would be awesome to build something like that up for fun.

Cheers,

[jefflinde]

The only thing i have seen is that nextie has some rims in 32" and 36". They are for unicycles but will work for bikes.  They are not really Chinese brands like we are used to but still affordable.  Issue you will have is the tires from Maxxis are not available to anyone. My understanding in watching an interview with the maxxis dude is that they only made a few hundred tires and only certain companies got them.  So you would be stuck with the heavy as heck T-monster tire that has been out forever. 

All of that said, I would love for a 32er frame to become available.  I would buy one now and wait for tires to become available.  Super pumped for this to come out.

[jannmayer]

Nextie has a lightweight 32" rim (~350 g) but it isn't available to the general public yet. Mike Curiak, a custom wheel builder, paid for the initial run and can build wheels with them.
https://www.mtbr.com/threads/nextie-alpha-32-rims-available.1242453/


Apparently there are some additional tires on the way (more aggressive than the Aspens) and several manufacturers are working on 32" bikes.

[Eddy-haideli]

Hey folks,
just curious — has anyone seen any carbon MTB frames or wheelsets for 32-inch setups yet? I know 29ers are still the standard, but I’ve seen a few experiments with 32” floating around and was wondering if any of the Chinese brands are already playing with that size.
Would be awesome to build something like that up for fun.

Cheers,

We got the plan to make a new mold in 32er hardtail carbon frame.

Now it being in design, any suggestion feel free to let us know.

Thanks so much.

[jefflinde]

We got the plan to make a new mold in 32er hardtail carbon frame.

Now it being in design, any suggestion feel free to let us know.

Thanks so much.

Please also make a carbon rigid fork to go with it.  Also, PLEASE NO CABLES through the headset.  or at least give the option to have cables NOT go through the headset.  that is the worst invention/idea to ever come out of the bike industry. 

[jefflinde]

Oh one more though in this. From some other posts made by wheel builders on other sites, it seems like the super boost spacing (157mm) is the sweet spot for stiffness of the wheel set.  I think if you can get out in the market quickly you could establish that as a "standard" for this wheel size.

Also, do you plan to aim at the XC segment?  The hat would be my preferred use case for a 32er. Clearance for a 2.5-2.6" tire would be perfect and focus on light weight as the wheels and tires will be noticeably heavier than 29er

[Eddy-haideli]

Now we accepte pre-order.

Thanks

[jefflinde]

there are a few Ali Express options for for rims.  Also Tideace is offering rims as well as the frame.  the maxis tires are readily available at the moment as well.  the big issue that I have right now is that spokes are very tricky to find.  I am told that in the US, Pro Wheel Builder is getting long spokes in stock and will have the ability to make lengths up to 320mm.  currently, the only option is Berd spokes (awesome but expensive) or unicycle spokes (heavy and still pretty pricey).  DT Swiss and Sapim say they make spokes up to 320mm so time will tell.

[Asco]

Here is a relatively cheap set of wheels. That's the first I've seen of a full build instead of just rims on Ali.

[Cloxxki76]

Hi all, I'm new here. Super passionate about 32".
I tried to make a 32" Panaracer tire happen some 20 years ago, but alas, the deal fell through. Tried quite hard but eventually gave up and went into other sports and projects. Psyched that 32" is happening, albeit 12 mm smaller than I was gunning for at the time.

I can weigh in a bit on carbon hardtails in 32". I'm dying to acquire one myself, in a typical XL fit. That doesn't mean the XL reach number taken from a 29" bike or even some random 32" drawing only. FIT.
I'd like one that has 32" specific design features, 100 mm corrected and geometry so it doesn't ride like a new slower handling class of bike. Something that rides (not the same geo numbers) as a good modern 29" hardtail would suit me fine. I'll probably use an angle adjust headset to make the steering more responsive. I've been riding bikes for a long time and I don't deal with super rough or fast or long downhills. YMMV.
I'd actually love a rigid fork like the Tideace, but they chose a SHORT END of 29"er fork offsets for a 32" fork... Had they made it 55 mm or more offset, I'd probably already have ordered the fork and maybe ordered a steel or ti frame around it.

Tantan Seraph is bench testing a hardtail and it seems to have gone well.
I'm not affiliated, but sometimes I get some of my questions answered by text.

I got the word that the price will be USD299. Same as their current 29" hardtail, so that's really fair. $450-460 shipped to Europe/USA is the 29"er.
But don't sing halleluiah just yet. It's for some but not for all.

Geometry is more extreme than Tideace.
120 mm suspension corrected, it seems. No rigid fork, and putting one in gets even crazier even if the correct length.

Geometry seems to have been copied from/inspired by a German 32" full suspension prototype. They sent me the geometry to that with no context.

Links to the Tantan Instagram posts here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/32inchbikes/comments/1szu2po/carbon_hardtail_frame_will_be_299_but_there_is_a/

Extremely steep seat tube, extremely slack head tube and 120 mm fork. 148 mm rear I think.
This means you cannot make any adjustment to make the bike be less steep or less slack where you need it, without making the other angle even more extreme than it already is.
Keep in mind, a 32"er with 66º head tube angle will have the steering response of a 29"er with ~64.5º, unless you add 10 mm of fork offset or add a bit of angle and a bit of offset to have the front axle end up in about the same horizontal location.

Note that the chainstays at 470 mm are even longer than on the Tideace. Less effort into rear packaging than even run of the mill 29" hardtail design see, it seems. And the same in all sizes, so not part of some grand design vision.
BB drop is more in line with what you'd expect. 93-32=61 mm. Mated to a REALLY long wheelbase, though...it might end up giving pedal strikes anyway. With a more tightly packaged 32"er, the tires guard the pedal strike zone more closely than a 29"er does.

Reach on the Tantan is long, seems it's NOT corrected for the ginormous stack. Usually we see rather short fitting quick, handling Chinese open mold frames, but these two 32" ones are very different.
What few people realize, even bike designers, is how stack affects the reach a riders needs.
With a 60 mm taller stack (as may happen going from similar 29" to 32" bike), you need to reduce reach by 24-26 mm (on a 66-67º head tube angle frame) to end up with the same stem length.
Example: my 2014 XL hardtail has 440 mm reach. On a new bike I want a shorter stem than the 100 mm I'm running now. The Tantan's 485 mm reach with 679 mm stack equated to ~503 mm reach on my 29"er so I'd need a 35-40 mm stem on the Tantan. Maybe I could try an even steeper seat tube angle than I run now, but I run my seat shoved all the way forward already.

When I emailed with Tideace (they were really going with the same BB drop and on their 29" hardtail), I only got to partially affect their final design, so the end result was still extremely long in the wheelbase with slow handling front end. Great for some, but it's on the extreme side.
Tantan I only found when their frame mold was already made.

Does anyone have experience in working together with Chinese/Taiwanese manufacturers?
If they designed a frame less extremely and with a bit more vision than "let's copy the aluminium full suspension from Germany", it would be such a great product.
Now with a $299 Tantan or $603 (shipped) Tideace, it seems needlessly hard to sell. Price is only one thing.

I'd LOOOVE to work together with a manufacturer, so they can get it RIGHT the first time. I've done this with several brands (but mostly Western contacts) 20-25 years ago when it was 29" hitting the scene for the first time.
I was approached by Redline and On-One and gave them geometry designs and input, they sold really well. Cube let me work with their factory, we had two hardtails hand made of which I own one. And there were heaps of on-off designs to assist on.

How do we find a brand like Tantan that would be open to help from the West? They're very brave to just make a mold, but there's no-one to copy from, it needs to be designed and picking a random western design doesn't necessary bring a good product to sell. If Tantan had made the geometry to fit and ride like a benchmarked list of 29" flagship hardtails, I'd have paid double, happily, but here we are. I'm struggling to find a use for a $299 32" carbon hardtail frame and all but banging my head against the wall :-D It could sortof maybe be a road training specific frame, but then 32" is of little use to me. I could make it a marathon bike, but I don't ride those really. I just need a 32" XC bike for training and racing.

I have a BikeCAD Pro license, so I can work out decent drawings for an engineer to work from. I can see exactly how a frame will ACTUALLY fit a rider, and benchmark against tried and true 29" hardtails.

The Tideace, I can maybe make to work for me, by going a size smaller and with a really long seatpost and shorter rigid fork.
The Tantan, I don't really see a point in buying. So so so long and no way to make adjustments that don't make it worse.

Does anyone know to which extent hardtail molds can be adjusted afterwards, to make the geometry less extreme? Whatever the limitations are, they may well be worth it. For us to ride, and for them to actually have a product that will sell on word of mouth (internet).
And rigid forks, can those molds be adjusted to some extent?

Nice for the budget conscious rider: Ryde 32" rims exist now. i30 and high 6xx gram weight, but I welcome that. Will ride it, or use it as a spare/road set.

[Cloxxki76]

https://www.reddit.com/r/32inchbikes/comments/1t673db/this_carbon_hardtail_was_spotted_in_shanghai/

Big Rock carbon 32"er hardtail, spotted at the recent Shanghai bike show.
Does anyone know the best way to contact them to obtain more details? I reached out via Instagram.

Seems they are a manufacturer who focus on OEM customers? Would those be the emerging Asian market, or also/especially western ones?

Very interesting is that actual effort was put into keeping the chainstays shorts. That's new on a 32" carbon hardtail. I've seen it in steel and titanium, of course.
The tire radius is 406-408 mm, so CSL may be ~450 mm which is very reasonable. Especially due to the BB drop of the larger wheel size reducing the horizontal measurement by ~5 mm more than 29" does. 450 mm on 32" will be as long as 445 mm on a same BB height 29"er. For some riders, longer is actually better. I have tight local trails and short steep climbs that call for coming out of the seat, I need weight over the rear axle to maintain traction.

Seems to a size Small frame, with an exceptionally long stem, for a modern XC bike of any size.
BB drop seems to be at least 90 mm and the driveside chainstay is a bit dropped to free up chainring clearance?

Some are recognizing an imitation Fork fork, I can't say I know enough about forks.

Unrelated interesting offering:
https://www.reddit.com/r/32inchbikes/comments/1ta8vbw/i35_rims_starting_at_480_grams/
32" carbon rims with 35 mm inner width. Widest I've seen. Before it was 30-33 mm maximum.
For those who run the widest available tires (2.4" for now) and want great stability cornering at low pressure, these might be something to consider?

Has anyone run such wide rims on 29" XC bikes? Curious how you liked that.

[boernei]

It's amazing to see how much has happened since I started this thread. We now have frames, rims and tires, which is far more progress than I expected.

Personally, I'm now hoping the next step will be a dedicated 32" carbon gravel frame. Not simply an XC frame with a rigid fork, but a frame designed from the ground up for drop bars and fast 45–50 mm tires.

I wonder if any of the Chinese manufacturers are already thinking about something like that. I'd definitely be interested.

[Cloxxki76]

There are leaks out there of Cube's 2027 Aero 32" Gravel bikes, at their flagship level. Also full suspension and even supposedly hardtails, all at flagship level.

Trek brings hardtails and full suspensions.
It starts with the carbon Procaliber 9.5 bike at €1799. Mostly the same spec as their current 29" model. Price identical.
120 mm Rockshox Reba, 3 color ways. 170 mm dropper post in L and XL. Boost axles.

I have a custom steel frame on order and want a good carbon frame.
The Procaliber on paper has the philosophy I like: focus on comfort and efficiency more so than pure weight savings. Carbon frames don't get heavy anyway.

If the geometry works well enough for me, I may buy the entry level bike and transfer the parts from my steel bike. I may well run it rigid, as the forks are all 45 mm offset which is a huge let down. Sticking with the shortest offset from 29", for 32"? It's sad when a Chinese frame shop (who skip the prototype stage) does it, but more so when Trek does it.

There are still no proper 32" rigid forks, but you can add a crown race spacer to a 500 or 510 mm fork from the 29" world. The good thing: those at least come with 51 mm offset, for snappier handling and self centering.
Overall fork length in most cases will be shorter than the 120 mm Trek fork even after sag, so make sure you can deal with the BB dropping as a result. About 1/3 the difference hits the BB. There are seat position and Reach effects as well.

We don't yet know the geometry of the Trek, the may well have made the same error as Tideace, Tantan and many others: ignoring the effect of stack on reach. It's easy (when the designer doesn't check/listen) to end up with a 32"er that fits a full size longer than intended, and you are forced to use a 20-30 mm shorter stem than intended. At the same time, the front end gets longer than was deemed ideal for 29". Is that merely getting ahead of the trend, or jumping the shark?

Chinese brands, listen up: Make a carbon hardtail and full suspension, but don't lock yourself in a room to design it. Reach out to me, I've studied this thoroughly. You don't need to make the mistakes others did before you. Copying their homework is NOT a good idea, they also didn't study for this exam...

Oh, and also do an aero 32" gravel frame and fork. Don't even try to figure that out unless you really know a lot about 32" and about gravel racing and XC racing. 32" gravel looks to becoming a whole different generation of bikes than current aero 29" gravel bikes. The traditional geometries are staying with 29", 32" unlocks something new, probably better and faster.

[Mtnbykr]

 

[Tijoe]

I discovered today that Waltly has entered the 32er market.  They state they have developed their own 32er carbon fork, and offer 32er wheelsets.

I made an inquiry, and hopefully they will quickly get back to me.

Here is the link.

https://www.waltlyti.com/product/61.html