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32 Inch wheels are here!
Zinn Cycles has the first production 32er full suspension bike for big and tall riders
By Nick Wigston
We've been building gravel bikes, e-bikes, and hybrids with 32 inch wheels for about 10 years now, and they are very popular for big and tall guys. The larger diameter makes a tall bike look more proportional, and the wheels provide a feeling of confidence and stability. We have been limited in making 32ers more mainstream due to the lack of availability of forks, rims, tires, and spokes. This has been changing recently, and has enabled us to confidently produce a 32 inch wheel full suspension mountain bike. We do hardtail as well, but this full sus 32er is a unique bike and puts performance cross country trail riding on the table for a tall guy who wants 32 inch wheels. Shop 32er mountain bikes.
We are producing our super popular B.I.G. Full Suspension mountain bike in a new model with 32 inch wheels and tires. This bike comes in a 2XL/3XL size as well as 4XL/5XL. The "smaller" size is great for riders from 6'4" to about 6'8" and the bigger size is great for those taller than 6'8". There is plenty of standover clearance, so there is room to size up or down depending on riding style.
Making a bike proportional to the rider is one of the core concepts at Zinn Cycles in all of our designs. We strive for proportionality whenever possible. When 29 inch wheels started being introduced in the early 2000s, we were an early adopter because it was so much more proportional for our Megabike and Gigabike, which were the first real full suspension bikes made for tall riders. Now that there are more rim and tire options for 32ers, it felt like time to bring this bike to market. Shop 32er mountain bikes.
While there are still no suspension forks that are designed for a 32 inch wheels, we have found one that works really well. Wren Sports has been making inverted suspension forks for some time now, and we learned that it's possible to reduce the travel on this fork without shortening the overall fork length. A longer fork is important for two reasons on this bike. One is to have clearance for the taller wheel, and another is to get the head tube high enough so we can have an appropriate handlebar height for a 7 foot tall rider. One thing big guys are tire of is getting a bike with the seat super high and the bars super low, so we are very careful to build our bikes with good seat and bar heights.
Another super important part that needs to be proportional is the crank length. There are numerous reasons for this. One being the improved pedal stroke. A very tall rider has much longer legs than an average sized person, so they need to proportionally increase the crank length to achieve a proportional pedal circle and be able to use their full range of motion. The other factor is seat height. If you increase crank length the seat height can be lower relative to the bottom bracket, which makes it much easier to get the handlebars closer in height to the seat. The proportional crank also brings the foot further forward when in the front horizontal crank position giving the rider more power and allowing for a steeper seat angle and not requiring set back seat posts. We are well aware of the trend in mountain biking to ride on "short" cranks, and we are not against this concept. We have always gone shorter on mountain bikes than we do on road bikes for tall guys. However, it's important to know what you are comparing to. Just because a tall guy was riding 175mm cranks doesn't mean that was the right length for them previously. If a tall guy wants to go with "shorter" cranks, we advise a lower proportion to the leg length. Instead of 21% of leg length which was previously considered a good proportion, we suggest 20% or even 1.95%. This will still come out longer than 175mm for most tall guys. Click here for more info on how to compare for shorter cranks.
Another reason for proportional cranks is to increase the width of your stance when descending. This adds stability to your ride when going fast downhill and helps keep your center of gravity a little lower. Think of a snowboard, it would feel wobbly and unstable for a 6'8" guy to have his feet in the same position as a 5'10" rider. Same thing applies to mountain biking. Shop 32er mountain bikes.
Compare 29er vs. 32er
These two bikes show the same bike. the first one has 32 inch wheels and the 2nd one has 29 inch wheels.
The 29er will have a shorter wheelbase, more tire options, more fork options, and a shorter chain stay. The 32er will be more proportional overall and roll faster with a little more high speed stability. The 32er still lacks in tire and fork options, but that is changing.