Originally Posted by
Spoonrobot
32" wheels appear to be as much organic as industry driven. There's no "ploy" here when individual consumers are demanding products and driving development with their own money. Almost every 32" bike I've seen has been self-funded by the rider. Much like 650b, there is a vast amount of work that is being done and has been done by enthusiasts working with and within the industry to bring this about. Much is not visible, or at least not visible unless someone looks hard and has access to some of the closed bicycle communities. What ends up on MTBR, Escape Collective, or Pinkbike is only a small part of the bigger picture.
I think the reason we doubt this, is that from the very start of the rumor last year, it's a Maxxis Aspen. If this was driven by iconoclasts, we'd be getting a tire from Panaracer or Surly with a special carcass or a funny tread. That's what happened with 29ers, and fat bikes, and plus bikes, and Rivendell and Compass. Instead we are going straight from unicycle tires to the top of the line XC racing tire from the top brand. Maxxis was also the first to serve up larger WT 29er tires in 2.5-2.6 sizes in the year that "plush, forgiving" plus bikes suddenly flipped like magic into "vague, wallowy" plus bikes. Mullet bikes are the most recent hard sell of a dubious change that's fresh in our memory. We went down half a step, now we are going up half a step?