![\"Catharine](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/catharine_pendrel.jpg\")
<\/a>Catharine Pendrel on her way to winning the second-round UCI World Cup event in Houffalize, Belgium in April 2013. Photo credit: Rob Jones\nFirst words: Hype or cross country beast?<\/p>\n
Before we get into the details, is this even a discussion worth having? Or just a bunch of marketing being over-sold as a performance advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we can ignore it,\u201d says Catharine Pendrel, adding that of the few riders she knows with time on the big hoops, \u201cTheir feed back was very positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandra Walter is more cautious, with good reasons that we\u2019ll get into below.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s still too early to tell,\u201d Walter says. \u201cI honestly wasn\u2019t paying too close attention to the 32\u2033 talk last year, but I guess it\u2019s becoming a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Geoff Kabush has had time on 32\u2033 wheels. While he can\u2019t spill the beans on which bike, his long-time sponsor Maxxis is perhaps the brand doing the most to push this new standard. Or, at least, as the first and currently only brand to make a 32\u2033 tire (others have committed, but there\u2019s no rubber on the ground) the brands that\u2019s been most brightly in the spotlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing from 26\u2033 to 29\u2033 was pretty dramatic and I\u2019d say 29\u2033 to 32\u2033 is significant but just slightly less so,\u201d Kabush shares. \u201cThere are definitely some very noticeable differences in riding dynamics. Big whips might be a little harder for the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kabush is quite specific about what the new wheel size can offer, and what might hold it back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe advantages to me were pretty obvious; rolling speed, obstacle rollover, climbing traction as expected,\u201d Coach K explains. The drawbacks are more subtle related to increased rotating weight and geometry design challenges for small people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those advantages proved enough for Kabush to chase down Sam Whittingham of Naked Bicycles to build a custom 32\u2033 titanium gravel bike. Why gravel? More on that tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Looking back at it now, the switch to 29\u2033 seems like it was inevitable. No brands offer 26\u2033 cross country bikes any more for adults and almost no brands offer fully 27.5\u2033 bikes. At some point, 29\u2033 won the wheel-size war. It\u2019s easy to forget how long the first wheel size debate raged on. And how there was just as much hype when 29\u2033 first appeared as we\u2019re seeing with 32\u2033 now.<\/p>\n Kabush says the transition wasn\u2019t necessarily immediate or smooth.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first year or two of 29in full suspension designs weren\u2019t very refined, competitive component development lagged, and the durability of some of the first 29in wheels were pretty bad. So the advantages weren\u2019t so obvious. 27.5\u2033 for XCO only complicated things,\u201d Kabush recalls. He took longer than some to switch in part, he admits, due to sponsor issues. By 2012, when he did switch, there was a full range of competitive components available.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was pretty dramatic. At the World Cups, it felt like 29\/26 split went from 10\/90 to 90\/10 split in that one year around 2011 or 2012. Once everyone had a competitive 29\u2033 option, the advantage for XC was obvious,\u201d Kabush says, adding \u201cCompanies that got there first had a decent advantage in that gap.\u201d<\/p>\n While XC was the proving ground, Kabush points out that the more exaggerated example is in downhill, where the Santa Cruz Syndicate\u2019s early move to 29\u2033 while the rest of the field was hand-wringing about big wheels earned the team some massive success. Greg Minnaar\u2019s mentioned the same in interviews earlier this year.<\/p>\n Catharine Pendrel points out that, in the women\u2019s field, the switch to 29\u2033 was much slower.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the beginning the tire options were so bad for 29 that it was hard to believe that \u201cthey just roll over everything\u201d when following people as they pinged around,\u201d Pendrel recalls with a laugh.<\/p>\n Instead, the Rio Olympic medallist was more focused on another rapidly evolving part of bike design.<\/p>\n \u201cAs an early adopter of full suspensions I stayed on 26 longer than most and let tires and geometry catch up to be on the right fit and feel.\u00a0 My switch was more to make it easier for the team to all be on the same equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n Pendrel points out that at London in 2012, the women\u2019s podium had all three wheelsizes represented. In Rio, 26\u2033 disappeared, but the other tech differences remained. There was a full suspension bike, a hard tail with a dropper and a hardtail with a fixed post. That wider tech picture, she says, should serve as some caution to the 32\u2033 hype.<\/p>\n \u201cI think, if 32\u2033 are faster they will be adopted more quickly, but it\u2019s about having the right options to fit all sized riders, conditions, etc. Even dropper seat posts were a pretty slow adoption and now people feel like they don\u2019t know how to ride a bike without one.\u201d<\/p>\n As Pendrel noted, the women\u2019s field took much longer to make the move. Canadian fans may remember Emily Batty was still landing World Cup podiums on a 27.5\u2033 as late as 2018. Sandra Walter says she didn\u2019t make the switch until halfway through the 2019 season, more than a decade after the 29\u2033 standard started to appear.<\/p>\n Even in 2019, Walter says she was \u201cquite reluctant\u201d to make the switch. \u201cI was also reluctant to switch from 26\u2033 to 27.5\u2033 before that.\u201d Her move to big wheels was, ultimately, pragmatic.\u00a0\u201cAll the new bikes were 29ers. I had to get with the program. I don\u2019t regret it though.\u201d<\/p>\n Walter says her reluctance was simple.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest factor both time was bike fit. I\u2019m a small rider and I was skeptical that I could get the right fit. I felt that there would be more compromise in fit to make the big wheels fit on a small frame.\u201d<\/p>\n Walter says of why she held off for so long.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think many earlier 29ers didn\u2019t get the geo right,\u201d Walter adds. While that aspect was sorted out by 2019, Walter adds that, as a rider without full factory-level support, availability wasn\u2019t the only obstacle. \u201cI was also reluctant because my personal tire and wheel inventory had invested a lot in 27.5\u2033. So it stung financially to make the switch.\u201d<\/p>\n Walter\u2019s still racing World Cups and other events, but doesn\u2019t see big wheels in her future. Maybe.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the challenges will be very similar to when 29ers were introduced. So, if it\u2019s up to me, I won\u2019t be the first one to jump on the 32er bandwagon, if ever. But I\u2019m also someone who said I\u2019d never ride a 29er and look at me now.\u201d<\/p>\n Walter does think there\u2019s another option.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not saying there isn\u2019t a place for 32ers in mountain biking but maybe not for smaller riders. I do see a certain amount of common sense in relative sizing. Some brands do this already, where XS models come with 27.5\u2033 wheels and larger ones with 29\u201d.<\/p>\n With the current hype train blowing so much steam into the importance of wheel size, I wanted to know what it was like to be on a start line with two, or even three different wheel sizes. Did it make a difference in strategy? In expectations of the riders that weren\u2019t on 29? Or was it still just racing?<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think there was a large scale change,\u201d says Walter. \u201cA specific example I did experience was having a hard time gauging my distance from the rider in front of me. I was still on 26\u2033 wheels but if the rider in front was on 29\u2033 their rear wheel would actually be closer to my front wheel.\u201d That, she says, led to a lot of rubbing tires.<\/p>\n Bigger picture, Walter says racing speed increased and features grew.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that was the way the sport was headed anyway,\u201d Walter says. \u201cThere was a lot of other technology involved during that time, for example in suspension and geometry, that contributed to that. Plus, the level of technical skill and race craft was constantly rising in the field, and still is!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>Kabush racing the 2012 Olympic XCO in London.
\nFrom 26\u2033 to 29\u2033: As it actually happened<\/p>\n<\/a>Catharine Pendrel racing Mont-Sainte-Anne in 2018. Image: Mathieu Belanger\/Gestev
\nThere\u2019s more to a bike than just wheels, There\u2019s more to a wheel than just its diameter<\/p>\n<\/a>Walter races the 2022 Canadian championships, well into her 29er era. Photo: Matt Stetson
\nA not-so-small note on fit<\/p>\n<\/a>Sandra Walter racing her third UCI World Championships at Mont-Sainte-Anne in 2019. Photograph by Nick Iwanyshyn
\nWhat was it like to race during the first switch?<\/p>\n