By now you may have heard that Evie Richards will be competing in this weekend’s World Cup cross-country races at Soldier Hollow, Utah, aboard an all-new Trek mountain bike with 32-inch wheels. The Wisconsin-based brand teased the reveal earlier this week and posted photos of the bike today. More details will surely drip out about the bike — like whether it’ll ever be put into production — but in the meantime, we decided to do some sleuthing of our own.
Pirelli 32er tires
Right off the bat, it’s clear that the Trek 32er is running prototype Pirelli tires thanks to the brand name and the word “prototype” emblazoned in all caps on the sidewalls. This is the first we’ve heard of a Pirelli 32er tire; back in April, we noted the brand was one of the few that hadn’t announced one. Though it’s tough to know for sure based on the photos, the tire appears to be a Scorpion XC RC, the brand’s World Cup race tire. Which makes sense.
It will be interesting to see how wide Pirelli decided to go with their 32er tire. So far, most brands seem to be choosing a 32×2.4″ size for mountain biking, even for lightweight XC tires.
Slack geometry for an XC race bike
I analyzed one of the photos Trek posted of the 32er race bike to get a sense of the geometry.
The head tube angle is perhaps the easiest to estimate from the photo. I used an online tool to draw a line tracing the fork, along with another line connecting the front and rear axles. Based on that, the bike looks to have a roughly 65° head tube angle. I tried a few other online tools as well, and they estimated the angle between 63° and 67°, which is a very wide range.
If 65° is in the ballpark, the bike is much slacker than the Trek Supercaliber, which has a 67.5° head angle.
Estimating the chainstay length, reach, and stack height numbers is even trickier. Unfortunately, the photo perspective is slightly distorted, with the rear wheel appearing closer in the frame than the front wheel. Still, it’s safe to say the chainstay length is likely much longer than the Supercaliber, and the bottom bracket drop is greater.
An extreme negative-rise stem on the front end shows how much the designers needed to compensate for a taller stack height. According to an undated athlete profile on 100percent.com, Richards is 5’3″ (160cm), though other sources have her listed slightly taller, at 164cm. Based on the Trek Supercaliber sizing chart, Richards would ride a size small frame, though this 2023 bike check says she rides a size medium Supercaliber. Either way, the slammed stem makes perfect sense.
Trek is the first major brand to put a 32er in competition, and the wheel size is yet to be proven
Though there have been rumors about a Trek 32er, and other brands like Cannondale and BMC are said to be testing the waters as well, Trek will be the largest company to test one in World Cup competition so far.
Earlier this year Alessandra Keller took third place in the short track XC race (XCC) riding a Thömus 32er mountain bike. Richards took second place at the UCI World Championship XCC race in Val di Sole last month, so we’ll definitely be watching to see how the big wheels perform in the short track once again!
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