Yesterday, Trek Bikes and Trek Factory Racing posted a short teaser video on Instagram with the caption, “Something big is coming.” In the video, World Cup XC racer Evie Richards is riding what appears to be a full-suspension XC race bike with 32” wheels. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this bike, however, as Trek slipped it into their own documentary earlier this year. While that looked like a prototype, the bike that Richards is riding appears to be production-ready.
While Trek has not confirmed a production 32” XC bike yet, “something big” certainly alludes to it. And, as we know, the 29” flex-stay bike the Trek factory Racing team has been riding all season was never going into production. Instead, it seems the team at Trek has been focused on our potential big-wheeled future and is likely to be the first mainstream brand to market with a production 32” bike. Is this the new Supercaliber, or will they call it something different?
Based on the Instagram video and our blurry screenshots, this bike appears to use a single-pivot flex-stay design with a layout that looks nearly identical to the 29” bike the Trek team has been racing this year. If it’s a race bike, then it’s definitely carbon fiber, and the “Project One” on the frame means that it will likely be part of Trek’s customization program.
It also appears that the bike has a SID Flight Attendant fork, which means that it’s also likely that RockShox will be launching a production 32” fork soon, too. Obviously, SRAM/RockShox have been working on something, but this is the first we’ve seen of any 32″ forks from them. It also seems that Trek has managed to scale its 32” platform to fit smaller riders — Evie Richards is 5’3” — meaning this bike and its larger wheels won’t be exclusive to taller riders. Obviously, it also has a significantly negative-rise stem and potentially an integrated bar-stem combo, too..?
Regardless, Trek is actively feeding the hype machine, and it will be interesting to see exactly what this new bike is and when it comes out. We’re certainly looking forward to checking it out when it does. Stay tuned.
And the Big Reveal…
Of course, while we were publishing the article above, Trek posted another Instagram video with the caption “32″ wheels have landed.” In it, a Trek mechanic is building up one of Trek Factory Racing’s 32″ prototypes, which will be raced for the first time at the World Cup in Soldier Hollow, Utah, this weekend.
Check out the video below, and especially the 32″ RockShox SID Ultimate Flight Attendant. Sure looks production-ready to us. I guess we all need to tune in to the XC racing action this weekend to see how Trek’s new 32″ XC race bike fares on the course. We’ll definitely be watching.