Are 32” wheels cycling’s new rage bait? No matter what content you consume, these wheels spark conversation and very strong opinions.
The larger diameter wheels — which in theory would roll faster and smoother over bumps — potentially rule out a huge segment of the market. As I wrote when wheels and tyres appeared at the Sea Otter trade show: “the geometry simply doesn’t work at smaller frame sizes without some significant engineering resulting in a good chunk of the cycling population locked out before the format has even properly launched.”
Allison Schmitz, however, disagrees. And, she’s designed the bike to prove it.
Standing at 5’2″ (158cm), Schmitz is a design engineer at Salsa Cycles — and she rides a size small. Which is exactly why the Fargo, Salsa’s new 32″ wheel bike, is the first one I’ve seen that actually fits a frame that small.
As a 5’5 female myself, the buzz around 32” bikes had been completely lost on me. In my mind, I was just too darn short to ride them. So you can imagine my surprise when I was walking about the Sea Otter Classic this past spring, to find a 32” wheel bike in a size small. A frame I could actually stand over. When I asked the rep at Salsa how this was possible, the answer was simple: “Allison would never make a bike that wasn’t available to everyone.”
I recently caught up with Schmitz to hear a little more about why 32” wheels aren’t just for tall people.
THE 32″ PROBLEM NOBODY WAS SOLVING
(Image credit: Lisa Charlebois/Future)
In case you’ve been shielded from the endless chatter about 32” wheels, the bikes built around this soon-to-be wheel standard are essentially designed for riders 5’9″ and taller. It’s just math. Bigger wheels mean longer forks, higher stack, and an elongated wheelbase to help with tyre clearance, and the dreaded toe overlap. All this translates into a bike that fits a 6’ rider beautifully, and leaves the rest of us standing on the sidelines.
That is, until you get the right people involved in the conversation.
As Schmitz shares, when the Fargo project kicked off, the team had that same original intent: to follow the trend and create a bike around the 32” platform in size medium and up. And then things changed.
“We have this big team to help challenge the product design process and ask the questions. So why are you stopping there? Why not small? It was this perfect confluence of me being the engineer on this project and being a person who rides a size small, to really put that effort and focus into small prototypes,” Schmitz shares.
A GAME OF MILLIMETRES
(Image credit: Justin Enerson)
How does one shrink a size large into a size small? You don’t, as Schmitz shares. You start anew.
Like most ideas, Schmitz began with a simple sketch: “a 2D stick figure,” as Schmitz describes it. A basic outline of what a bike looks like on a screen in a software program called SolidWorks, and then slowly, tube by tube, you start hanging parts on it. She talks about it as pulling geometry numbers, checking clearances, asking what happens if you move this millimetre here or that angle there. It’s methodical, iterative, and the kind of detailed work that could send your head spinning.
One principle she works by: always start with the smallest size. “That frame is honestly going to give you the most challenges because you’ve got less space to work with.” Solve the small, she says, and the rest tends to follow.
Schmitz and the team were able to push the front wheel just far enough forward to solve the toe clearance problem. A negative rise stem manages the higher stack. A shortened head tube brings things back into proportion. Small decisions, made carefully, added up into a bike that actually fits everyone.
The next step was to ride it. With an in-house welder, the team was able to create rapid prototypes, bringing three different bikes to life for testing: a 29″ variant, a 32″ with a rigid fork, and a 32″ with a suspension fork. The three builds weren’t just variations for variation’s sake, each one let Schmitz test how the small-frame constraints, toe clearance, stack height, fork length, behaved differently depending on wheel size and suspension setup. This was critical to nail down before any geometry was locked in for production.
“Bike design is a game of millimetres,” she says. “You’re just trying to squeeze every little millimetre you can get.” And she feels those compromises personally. “It can be a little frustrating. You’re like, is this a different experience? I understand why you had to do that, but also, what can I do to just make this a better compromise?”
RIDING YOUR OWN WORK
(Image credit: Gabe Welker)
Schmitz rode the first Fargo prototype around Minneapolis and remembers the moment clearly.
“I was like, this bike looks cool. I’d like to keep this.”
She rode those prototypes all summer. The decisions about geometry, about what compromises were acceptable — she was making them as a rider as well as an engineer.
“I’m not designing this bike for me,” she’s careful to say. “It’s for a wide range of users.”
So how did the bike feel? The impact of bigger wheels is significant, Schmitz says. “It has better rollover and momentum to get you there faster or take you farther,” Schmitz said. But it isn’t necessarily the most intuitive, at least not at first. “There was an adjustment period, it felt like a lot of bike to get my leg over the wheel, but I was surprised how quickly that feeling went away and how normal it became.”
To help alleviate this issue, Schmitz added a dropper post. “It helped me get used to the handling, even just coming to stops and getting on and off the bike.”
After that, something shifted. “It became my preferred ride,” she said. “The better rollover, traction and maintained momentum is noticeable and I find myself more confident and daring on the 32″ bike. The big wheels open up more trail for me, with the forgiveness of poor line choice because the wheels can overcome a lot.”
32” WHEELS SHOULDN’T BE EXCLUSIVE
(Image credit: Allison Schmitz)
For Schmitz, this was never just about one bike. It’s about access.
“Everyone deserves the benefits of 32″ wheels and the choice on what wheel size is best for them,” she says. Her argument is grounded in a very real, very practical need. “32” wheels have a higher angular momentum and a lower angle of attack, which means these wheels roll faster and farther under the same amount of power. This translates into tangible and measurable advantages. “The longer contact patch improves traction and, paired with the other benefits (faster rolling, more momentum retention) it allows for new line choices through difficult terrain.”
These are benefits that every rider, regardless of height, should have the option. Just like any other bike, cyclists should be able to decide whether they want this performance, or not. Sadly, this isn’t even an option for most riders. There isn’t even the illusion of choice. The door isn’t simply closed—it doesn’t even exist. Until now.
“The only way to have this choice is if more brands to challenge and expand the size range for 32″ bikes,” she says. “We know it’s possible, the Fargo 32 is a great example. But even with Fargo’s versatility, it is one example with a specific set of design parameters in mind. I’m excited to see how the industry will innovate and serve a larger bike community with this new wheel size.”
While one bike doesn’t fix the entire size challenge across the cycling industry, it does prove a point. The next question is whether the rest of the industry will answer. Or is even willing to try.
WHAT SHE’S RIDING TOWARD, PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY
(Image credit: Allison Schmitz)
Schmitz describes herself as a casual rider. And then in the same sentence drops that she used to be a competitive distance swimmer and once did a 24-hour race in Minneapolis on a tandem, with her husband, that they found on Craigslist. She also wants to ride across the entire state of Minnesota and eventually, the United States… on rail trails. It’s this understated confidence that comes through in her professional life too.
She wants to keep learning, expanding her skillset into more carbon frames and even some full suspension projects too. It’s not about notoriety for Schmitz, instead, it’s about seeking solutions with the ultimate goal of becoming a subject matter expert. Not famous. Just genuinely good at the thing she’s spending her time on. When I press her for a little more she keeps it cool and low-key with a simple: “I’m just ready to work on my next project.”
What makes Schmitz’s story so interesting isn’t that she’s a woman in a male dominated field (though she is, and that matters). Instead, it’s that she’s proof that the best products come when there are more perspectives involved. When you invite different people into the conversation.
Schmitz didn’t set out to make a statement. She just showed up, and asked the questions nobody else did. Ultimately, building something that made a difference and creating a bike that fits everyone because she needed it to fit her.
The rest is just millimetres.
