Riding one of the first 32” mountain bikes sold me on the new wheel size, for now

Josh Weinberg and Jared Nelson

I’ve spent the past year fixated on riding a mountain bike with 32” wheels. It was March of 2025 that I saw the first photos of Maxxis’ Aspen in the emergent new diameter. Daniel Yang of Neuhaus Metalworks was in Taiwan at the Taipei Cycle Show, sending me photos from the expo of the 32” display sample towering over other existing models. I'm typically a bit of a skeptic, but my interest was definitely piqued. And with a heavy dose of persistence, I was able to source the bike that Yang and his business partner Nick Neuhaus designed to fit those exact tires – the NOVA32 – to spend time riding in a variety of scenarios before the bike's release just a few weeks ago.

While this report will take a close look at the NOVA32, it’s not a typical bike review. With the tire and wheel size being so new, there’s really nothing in the same class to compare it with. But there’s still plenty to talk about, primarily what it's like to actually ride, along with some advantages and limitations I’ve identified. Consider it a vibey addendum to John Karrasch’s 32” tire efficiency testing with a substantial dash of math thrown in for good measure.

To level set, bead seat diameter (BSD) is the figure to watch when comparing various wheel sizes. This measurement is the inner diameter of the rim where the tire bead sits. 26” wheels have a 559 mm BSD and 29” have 622 mm BSD, which is an 11.5% difference. Interestingly, the jump from 29” to 32” (686 mm) is actually a bit less, at 9.3%. And, then there’s the occasionally mentioned 750D gravel size, which have a BSD of 660 mm that sits somewhere between 29” and 32”.

The first efficiency tests of 29″ vs. 32″ tires tell us bigger is (probably) fasterReal-world Chung Method testing shows the bigger wheel size may have real advantages for gravel and mountain bike racers.Escape CollectiveJohn Karrasch

Contextually speaking, Escape Collective has been reporting on the emergence of the 32” wheel size for some time now. The first article followed the Aspen’s Taipei coming-out party, which I think was a significant domino to fall in signaling to the public that a new wheel standard was coming, and brands were serious about it. Development for components like tires doesn’t happen in a vacuum; mold tooling is too expensive to make on a lark. There was no audio track in the Maxxis booth (at least not that I know of) repeating the famous line from Field of Dreams , whispering, “If you mold it, the bikes will come.”

And while there has certainly been a flurry of development using the 32” Aspen as the first performance-oriented XC tire since that show, major bike brands were initially responsible for pushing Maxxis to make it. While researching my first article on the emergence of 32” wheels and tires last year, Mountain Liang, Maxxis' marketing coordinator, informed me that the Taiwanese tire manufacturer spent about six months developing a process and having custom machinery built to produce the new 32 x 2.4" Aspen. It sunk considerable capital into new machines for making the pre-cured “green tire” and a bead machine for a bigger bead circle in the semi-finished product.” When I got wind of Trek’s long-standing (15-ish years or so) 32” development project, I asked product developer Travis Brown for a status update.

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