And you may ask yourself, "Well ... how did I get here?"

Quite honestly, the 32" rigid single speed thing went from pipe dream to "financially committed" way faster than I'd ever anticipated.  Tom from Vassago sniffed out my desire after a fair amount of thinking out loud on FaceBook about wanting to make it happen but not knowing where to start.  The only current tire option is the Aspen 32X2.4, and I didn't think I had the kinda pull to put a pair in my hands any time soon.  Then there's wheels.  Rims from... somewhere?  Industry Nine made a system set for the Neuhaus show bike, but would they make them for little old me?  I'm special, but am I that special?

Oh... then there's the frame.  The only "stock" one I know about it is the Neuhaus.  Steel frame and ENVE fork basically $3,000 and a twelve week wait time.  

Hmmmm...

I told Tom if we could 100% make the three things happen around the same time, I'd have to give it some serious thought.

It only took him a couple days to get all the ducks in a row.  

Dammit.

So your question is, "why?"

I was an early adopter of tubeless.  I've already told the story about how Stan (yeth, THE Stan) was in my garage on Memorial Day weekend of 2001 helping me set up my Sun Ringle rims tubeless using his OG packing tape, electrical tape, valve stems, and Hobby Lobby latex system.  There was definitely a learning curve, and those early years weren't all gravy.  

I was a very early passenger on the drooper Love Boat, especially when it comes to the "endurance" crowd, and especially the single speeders.  I bought my first one back in early 2013, and just like the tubeless thing, it wasn't all smooth sailing.  I had to deal with a few turds along the way, but the advantages were worth the hassle.  I'm in the Droop or Die Club for life.

But then there was the 29" wheel party that I showed up late to.

I can remember the first 29ers I saw were back in 2005, specifically the Gary Fisher Rig that was so prevalent at SSWC.  Unfortunately, I'd bought my "last frame I'll ever buy" THE Meatplow (V.1... who knew?), a custom Dean Colonel EBB single speed.  In 2006, I did the NUE Series, and it seemed like most of the other single speeders that were competitive were already on 29ers... and I could see the writing on the wall.  My first few 29ers were real turds, cheap steel mail order Zion EBB frames.  The "industry" was slow to embrace the idea, and the first 29 forks used existing crown/steer units from 26" forks.  The offset was only 39mm, so to keep trail figures in check, they had to use steep head tube angles... for the most part.

Those of us that were tiny, we got the short end of the stick.  Steep head tube angles and short offsets meant toe overlap. So while the rest of the world got twitchy, steep bikes with big wheel capabilities, we got floppy steering piles of poop that handled like a tractor with a flat front tire.  Eventually, we got better fork offsets, and with that, 29" wheel bikes worked better for us short people.

So why jump on the 32" wheel bandwagon so soon?

Two things.

I feel like we learned a lot from the rough start with 29ers.  No round pegs in a square hole this time.  The geometry of my frame will be pretty close to my Optimus (which is my favorite bike) aside from fitting in the larger wheels.  The ENVE MTN Boost fork has the flip chip, and when set up with the 51mm offset, it has a trail figure that's pretty damn close to the Optimus with a 130mm travel /44mm offset squishy fork.  I will be gaining close to a half pound of rotating weight VS the Optimus, but a lighter setup that was on my Radimus.  I'm hoping what I lose in acceleration, I more than make up for in terms of approach angles and angular momentum.

"Was on my Radimus?"

Yeth, I sold the Radimus.

Sentimentality speaking, it was a hard decision.  It was my first "modern geometry" single speed.  I'd won a few bike races on it, including the only stage race where I saw the top step.  I've taken it on a billionty adventures, and it's been very, very good to me.

That said, I finally figured out how to look at STRAVA and what bike got ridden when.  Nine rides in 2025, and three of those were stages at the Trans Sylvania Mountain Bike Epic after my cranks failed on my Optimus.  So really six rides... and two of those were farting around at Horny Cat and the ten miles of putzing around with some yutes for the Tarheel Trailblazers 35th anniversary ride (because my Optimus was all cleaned up for the King and Queen of the Watershed the next day).  I'm just not riding the Radimus enough to justify owning it.  As I noted before, the line between the Optimus and the Radimus got extremely blurry when I upped the front travel of the former to 130mm.

The stats show it.

Oh... and the second thing.

I'll be fifty fucking seven years old in 2026.  Good lorb.  I'm running out of "seasons."  I could wait until the masses decide if 32" wheels make sense, or I can just kill some boredom, time, and money and find out myself.  Time to YOLO and FAFO before I YODO.  I'll allow six bikes in my life, and since the Radimus needed to be culled, and I don't really need a road bike... a 32" bike it is.  I've listened to all the poodcasts and read all the pundits have to say, although many (most?) of the "pundits" haven't even thrown a leg over one.  IMHOMO, I'm at the extreme end of the spectrum height-wise as to whether or not it will be a good fit for me.

Is it gonna work out?  Who knows?

But I'm looking forward to trying.