Trek has teased a 32in XC prototype on social media, with the new bike appearing to feature an unreleased 32in RockShox SID Flight Attendant fork.
The brand says the new bike will be ridden by Trek Factory Racing for the first time at this weekend's penultimate UCI World Cup in Soldier Hollow, Utah, with Evie Richards seen riding it in an Instagram post.
A new 32in cross-country bike had been expected from the brand, with Trek suggesting at the start of the season that its current 29in prototype raced by the team this year “may never hit store shelves”.
A variation of the bike was also spotted in the background in Trek's 50th-anniversary documentary.
Alongside the bike is a new 32in RockShox SID fork with what appear to be extended dropouts to fit the new wheel size.
While we’ve seen Fox’s RAD 32in prototype fork already in action on Andreas Seewald’s World Cup winning KTM Scarp Evo 4 32 prototype, it’s the first time we’ve seen anything 32in from rival RockShox.
Big wheels
The new bike has a similar suspension layout to the prototype the team has been racing, sharing the a top-mounted rear-shock design with flexstays in the rear triangle.
This shape of frame is very common in cross-country, because packaging the rear suspension high in the frame leaves space for two water bottles in the front triangle – perfect for marathon races where feed stops can be few and far between.
Having Evie Richards ride the bike in the video, and race it this weekend, suggests Trek has worked out one of the more difficult issues with the 32in wheel size.
Worries have spread that the new wheel size will put smaller riders at a disadvantage, but at 164cm, Richards appears to be countering that argument.
While we don’t have a full list of frame sizes, it appears Trek may have solved the issue of making small frames with 32in wheels.
The wheels of the bike look to be laced together with PolyLight braided Dyneema polyethylene spokes, which we saw on Berd's 32in Hawk32 Gold wheelset in Taiwan earlier this year.
It appears to be a different rim profile from those wheels, so we expect these to be Trek or Bontrager's own prototype.
The tyres look to be Pirelli prototypes.
RockShox SID Ultimate Flight Attendant 32in
Out of all the brands, RockShox has seemed the most secretive with its ambitions for 32in, with this being the first fork we’ve seen from the brand with the new wheel size.
From the teaser, the new SID appears to inherent some of the design cues from the new ZEB and Lyrik forks, with a plastic portion featuring on the arch that likely covers mounts for a mudguard.
It also features Flight Attendant, which we assume will have been optimised for the new 32in wheel size.
32in tipping point
It has felt as though 32in wheels have been coming for a little while now, but the addition of Trek and RockShox to the bandwagon feels like another layer of credibility has been given to the wheel size.
It seems certain now that the future of XC racing is bound in 32in rubber, but the proof will be found between the tapes during the transition period.
