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Crab everything.... in this case, claw-clip
I remember CST and other tire manufacturer having no technical issue making 32 inch tires when asked during last Taipei Bike Show, the main issue is bike brand committing actual sizeable order for them and they would need to know that option from fox and rockshox are possible atleast for xc bikes.
One of the most interesting thoughts about biek innovation I've heard in a hot minute tbh
old but good > new but bad.
32" front and back is only gonna be unequivocally better for people of a certain height or better, and peeps gotta keep it real in that regard. With the technicality of modern XC courses, a 32" wheel for someone too short is gonna be a liability I.M.O.
We need a new term for 32" front 29" rear. How about Mega-mullet?!
Mega Mullet is what I have heard Pon employees describe their test-mule frames as…
So, the question is which Pon company drops a 32 first? Does GT get revived meaning Giant Tires? Maybe Cannondale.. They have a history of quirky bikes..
I bet C´dale
Makes sense to me; they won't need a new casting (maybe? Is the Lefty upper cast?) which should speed up development...
I think the bigger wheels will be faster for everyone, just like 29ers were. XC courses seem to be getting more jump / descend skilly and less slow techy, a perfect match for an even bigger wheel.
They might be able to limit the travel on the lefty.. Might just need a longer stanchion tube.. But, I'm not totally familiar with the Lefty internals..
Darren Baum already did this so I'd be shocked if Cannondale isn't all over it...
"Less easy was the fork, and rather than going the rigid route, Baum customised a Cannondale Lefty Ocho mountain bike fork (if you can call it that). “There’s no arch to get in the way of the tyre, but it had too much travel. The front wheel would have ended up hitting the down tube during compression, too, so we did some work in house to reduce the travel to 80 mm, which is what we were after for a gravel bike,” shared Baum of the customised air spring within."
https://escapecollective.com/spoken-2025-baums-been-busy/
I wonder if the SuperMaxx lefty competes with the more current USD forks? It certainly does in weight…
Unsure.. in downhill we went from 26 to 27.5 to 29, and then back to 29/27.5 - it kind of seems like we found the ceiling.
Lots of dh guys say full 29 is faster. Just mullet is so much easier for them to make adjustments and limit mistakes that they choose to run the mullet.
Xc is an hr long plus race. I’m sure we’ll see some people throw away a result in the first seasons of 32 wheels. But I’d imagine most the field will be on them once they can. The same way everyone ended up on 29.
Think it’s likely 32 will also lead to mullet setups being allowed in xc which was pointed out to me as not currently being legal. But I think you might see shorter riders on 32 rear and 29 front to solve the stack issues before people are worried about eating a tire in their buttcrack. It’s just not usually a problem on short travel bikes with long seatposts with generally short or no dropper.
Only time will tell, it’ll be interesting to see where it does end up.
Personally I hope it dies a quick relatively pain free death and it doesn’t lead to bike companies sinking a heap of money into sub par bikes as has been implied previously in the forum.
Once we get a new axle standard to stiffen up the huge wheels, we surely know that the history repeats itself
What's the issue with reducing the letfys travel? Just put a spacer in the positive air chamber
I’m with MXecutioner !!
Probably missed this discussion, but is there a reason we went from 29 to 32? What about 30 or 31? Or 30.5 (just like 27.5 is between 26 and 29). Curious: Was 32 just an arbitrary choice, or is there some reasoning?
You can only have so many incremental steps before The Industry™ goes full penny farthing.
Something to do with unicycles
Likely just an easy number to move towards. It's not too big (36) but enough of a jump in size to make people think its better. Pure marketing. 29" kind of made sense, it was already the same rim and tire diameter as road bikes, so making that jump for manufactures of wheels and tires, well all they really needed to do was make there 26" wheels and tires on machines they kind of already had. Remember, this was when MTB rims were huge if they were 25mm wide. And when that kind of stalled, they introduced 27.5 as an in-between size and worked out the geo issues until most people finally moved up to 29, or at least mullet after 2019. Now that bikes have kind of hit a slow spot for development, they're literally just moving on to the next most likely thing, even if its not better for most people. Tech-dudes will run for it thinking it will make them suck less and not have to cut roots out, sales numbers will jump for 3-4 years as people try it out and in 2032, trying to find a 32" tire will be like trying to find 27.5+ tires now.
Don't get me wrong, 32", will have the same magic carpet effect 29 had compared to 26 but honestly, 32 is going to make people under 6'3" feel like someone on 29's under 5'5". I'm 5'8", a very solid size medium and on a full 29 enduro bike, my rear tire was getting very up-close and personal when wheel travel got scarce or really steep stuff. While I don't see 32" moving beyond trail bike territory, I think over half of people who ride would end up being made to feel awful uncomfortable when riding on much more than easy rolling terrain. And looking at the bikes, that things not making it around a tight switch back designed 10 years ago for 26" wheels any day of the week.
650b, 700cc, so that means 750ddd right?
Funny screen grab… oops…
But more production ready frames… more brembos, and different Ohlins stanchions..
I think frame and brakes are soon! Let’s hope. I want the brakes.
Not sure on Ohlins but will be interesting to see that direction
Odd that they would brand a new/proto fork with the old (superior, seriously, I didn't see a single positive comment on the whole internet) branding...
Old branding to try and hide the prototype? Use the new branding when they release the new fork? Wild guess on my part..
It’s wild to have your cranks disappear into the frame at a spot different from your chainring. Kinda really totally have to ride one of these…
I never noticed that until you just pointed it out, even though I've seen this bike so many times. It's at the top of the list of bikes I actually want to ride, alongside the Rallon (in both DH and enduro capacity).
la chaine doit être super longue