{"id":851452,"date":"2026-08-11T13:20:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T13:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851452\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T13:20:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T13:20:24","slug":"building-my-first-32-inch-all-terrain-bike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851452\/","title":{"rendered":"Building My First 32-Inch All-Terrain Bike"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jesse<\/p>\n

By Jesse Turner<\/p>\n

Guest Contributor<\/p>\n

@sss.bike<\/a><\/p>\n

Curious to see what all the buzz is about, Jesse Turner of Slow Southern Steel in Fayetteville, Arkansas, recently fabricated his first 32-inch bike. The result is a striking singlespeed titanium ATB with a truss fork from Black Sheep and a one-of-a-kind finish from Rare Earth. Find Jesse\u2019s short reflection on building his debut 32er here\u2026<\/p>\n

When I first heard that Maxxis had made a 32-inch tire a couple of years ago, I thought to myself, \u201cGreat, another new standard.\u201d I immediately wrote it off and figured I\u2019d never build one. Fast forward to last summer at the MADE bike show in Portland, and big-wheeled bikes were all the rage. After seeing the custom 32-inch builds from BTCHN\u2019, Neuhaus, and Falconer in person, my heart began to soften, and curiosity set in.<\/p>\n

\"32-inch<\/a>
\n\"32-inch<\/a><\/p>\n

A couple of 32-inch bikes on display at MADE 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

In the following weeks, the urge to build one grew, and I began scheming. I needed a tall guy\u2014a victim\u2014to test my geometry ideas on. I started to set my sights on friends who might be tall enough and willing to hire me to build a bike with this new wheel size. The perfect opportunity came about a month after MADE, when Hot Springs, Arkansas, local Randy Windle stopped by my shop in Fayetteville to pick up the custom Rare Earth I\u2019d brought home for him from the show. At first, despite presenting my best sales pitch, Randy didn\u2019t seem too interested. But a few months later, having had a change of heart, he reached back out to me.<\/p>\n

\"Slow<\/a>
\n\"Slow<\/a><\/p>\n

Randy wanted a new bikepacking race rig for his 2026 season, but he had one special request: make it from titanium. At first I almost said no. Building out of Ti seemed daunting, and figuring out a new wheel size already seemed like enough of a challenge. But not wanting to miss out on an opportunity, I caved, and the design process began.<\/p>\n

Design<\/p>\n

Randy is what I would like to call a \u201cbicycle curator\u201d and had a clear picture of what he wanted out of the build and frame. He left me room to cook when it came to tubing selection, geometry, and frame aesthetics. Randy really is a dream customer for a builder. To lighten my workload, we decided to outsource the fork to Blacksheep, and the finish work to Brian of Rare Earth.<\/p>\n

\"Slow<\/a>
\n\"Slow<\/a><\/p>\n

Initial Design Goals:<\/p>\n

Titanium single-speed-focused ATB frame and fork with thoughtful cargo capacity for bikepacking
\nFit and handling similar to his Black Sheep
\nCompatibility with the unique parts he wanted to use (listed below)<\/p>\n

Randy really liked how his Black Sheep 29er handled, and he loved the fit, so I tried to design something with similar cockpit dimensions, rear center, front center, and trail numbers that he was used to. Since Randy is a dedicated single-speeder running 175 mm cranks, I also wanted to keep the bottom bracket height from being so low that he would strike his pedals on rocks. Those goals made the design work pretty easy; since he\u2019s a taller guy, it wasn\u2019t too hard to massage numbers in BikeCAD and end up with something I thought would work.<\/p>\n

\"Slow<\/a><\/p>\n

However, I quickly realized that the standard 29\u201d rigid fork dimensions were not going to cut it. We needed more offset if we didn\u2019t want a high trail number and steering that felt more like a trail bike than a pure-bred bikepacking machine. The bigger wheels inherently slow down the steering, which I knew Randy wasn\u2019t really going for. I scoured the web and talked with a handful of others who had ridden 32\u201d wheels already. I ended up taking advice from Whit at Meriwether and going with 60 mm of fork offset. I sent the dimensions to James at Black Sheep, and he agreed that it should ride nicely. Knowing both of them had built with the bigger wheels, I\u2019m glad I took their advice.<\/p>\n

\"Slow<\/a>
\n\"Slow<\/a><\/p>\n

Some other requests from Randy included internal brake and dynamo routing, bolt-on frame bag and top tube bag mounts, top tube bottle cage mount, full rack mounts, Paragon Machine Works sliding dropout system, and an ultra-cool portage handle on the left side, because Randy likes to hop off on the right.<\/p>\n

Early Thoughts<\/p>\n

Randy was nice enough to let me take the bike on a few real rides before I handed it over, something I don\u2019t normally do on a customer\u2019s bike. It rides great. Maybe it\u2019s just not that hard to design a bike that rides well, but I was truly impressed by how natural it felt when I first rode it in the gravel driveway of my shop. The steering didn\u2019t feel weird or sluggish, with no noticeable heavy wheel flop. The wheels didn\u2019t initially feel any slower to spin up or any harder to stop. It felt very similar to what I\u2019m used to feeling on my similar-style 29\u201d bike.<\/p>\n

\"Slow<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Slow<\/a>
\n\"Slow<\/a><\/p>\n

Once I got out on the trail, I really started to feel the differences. It is smoother than a 29er at pedaling speeds on the rocky and rooty trails we have here in Fayetteville. You notice it even more when you point it downhill. I noticed the bigger wheels were slightly more sluggish than I was used to on tighter turns and harder to get rolling again after the bike lost momentum. Overall, though, for a fully rigid bike, I think 32\u201d has its clear advantages. On faster-rolling trails and gravel, it feels like a more efficient option than a smaller wheel size.<\/p>\n

Findings<\/p>\n

I\u2019m no expert, just a framebuilder and bike nerd who thinks about this stuff way too much. I am proud of how this frame turned out and grateful for Randy trusting me to build it for him. He\u2019s already accomplished a lot on it, becoming the first-ever single-speed finisher of the Fayetteville Ultra Circuit and the first person to complete the MOzark 1,300+ mile bikepacking route. That has to be my favorite part about being a framebuilder: creating something that helps people accomplish their goals. It is so rewarding.<\/p>\n

\"Slow<\/a><\/p>\n

In my opinion, 32-inch bikes are awesome and will find their home on the XC\/gravel\/bikepacking end of the bike spectrum. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re for everyone, but for some, they\u2019ll fit their style just right. Now, I just need to find the time to build one for myself!<\/p>\n

Randy\u2019s SSS 32\u201d ATB Build Kit<\/p>\n

Frame: Custom Ti SSS 32\u201d ATB
\nFork: Ti Black Sheep ATAT 32\u201d, 500 mm A-C, 60 mm OS
\nFinish: Ultra Rare Finishes, from Brian at Rare Earth Cycle Craft
\nRims: Verum Velo
\nHubs: SON Dynamo (front) \/ Onyx (rear)
\nSpokes: Berd
\nTires: Maxxis Aspen, 2.4\u201d
\nHandlebars: Ti Black Sheep, 780 mm
\nGrips: ESI Extra Chunky x4
\nBar-ends: Cane Creek
\nHeadset: Phil Wood
\nCrankset: NOS Ignite, 175mm
\nChainring: Alugear Oval, 32T
\nBottom bracket: NOS Ignite
\nPedals: Yoshimura Chilao SS
\nCog: Boone Ti, 21T, spacers from Endless Bike Co.
\nBrakes: Hope Evo 4, Hope rotors 180mm
\nSaddle: Selle Repente Quasar
\nSeatpost: RockShox Reverb AXS, 150mm
\nStem: Ti Black Sheep, 50 mm
\nBags: South City Stitchworks
\nFront rack: Black Sheep, Ti
\nRear rack: SSS, Ti
\nLight: Sinewave Beacon, Perennial coaxial connector, Schmidt mount
\nOther accessories: Spurcycle Bell, Ti King Cage
\nTotal weight: 26.9 pounds (including pedals, both racks, dyno hub, light, accessories, etc.)<\/p>\n

Further Reading<\/p>\n

Make sure to dig into these related articles for more info…<\/p>\n

Please keep the conversation civil, constructive, and inclusive, or your comment will be removed.<\/p>\n