Is 36 Inches the Measure of Fun?

In the mountain bike world, we’re no stranger to new standards, some things catch on straight away. Other things? Well, they may take some time to warm up to. So how about a 36er? Perhaps not as odd as it first sounds, 36-inch wheels are certainly not unheard of. A quick search of 36er on Instagram brings up a few thousand posts.

The internet is a treasure trove at times if you just go digging. It’s also kinda awful, but in this case, we came up with some of the good stuff. A 36er from Trentasei. With a carbon frame and 36″ Braus carbon wheels from Italian company Alchemist.

36 Inch Wheels

On their website, the brand notes a few advantages of riding 36″ wheels:

• Greater stability – a larger diameter of the wheel increases the gyroscopic effect * produced by the rotation of the wheel itself, allowing the bike to proceed with greater stability and greater sense of safety. On a 36, ​​taking your hands off the handlebar even at reduced speed, you immediately perceive this effect.

• Why a rigid fork? – with a 36 × 2.25 ″ cover we have a large volume of air, working at a pressure of about 1.5 / 1.6 atm we already obtain from the cover a good damping effect useful for overcoming the obstacles of a normal path without problems.

• 36 ″ wheel angle of attack – we made use of this term with reference to the 4 × 4 automotive sector, a 36er really “attacks” the terrain and obstacles. There is no better term to explain how compared to a 29er (with a larger angle of attack) with this bike you literally float on holes, stones and roots.

Trentasei Bikes

The website also details that the bike has the first dedicated fork for a 36er, made by Bright Racing Shocks, another Italian company.

Just a few weeks ago, Sam Pilgrim took a 36″ wheeled bike for a ride (not the Trentasei). Here’s an idea of how the wheel size rides. Sam seemed pretty pumped to try it out. It does look kind of funny, but never say never!

I have an amazing bike here for you, this is the 36″ wheeled cruiser bike and it has to be the biggest bike in the world, with its huge wheels, frame and forks it surely is something to be admired! So with the admiring done it was time to get this bike tested and to start things off I find a big hill and blast down it full speed to get a feel for the bike. After completing the speed test, it was time to ride down some stairs and the huge wheels really did make the ride super smooth so what could be harder? We then arrived at Tiptree skatepark to see if the bike could get airborne and my god was it sketchy. After the sketchfest we then hit some full speed MTB trails and had the best time ever until something on the bike bent which meant it was time to fit some new parts to the bike!!!! But for how long would the bike last!? Thanks a lot to Steve Peat and Joe Rackley for arranging the bike for me

Sam Pilgrim

It seems Sam also found another wonderful bike park built by a local council. At least it seems to have a little more in the way of features than the one in Carlisle.

36 inches, the measure of fun?

So, will we all be in 36ers in years to come? Would you try one? I guess we’ll have to see. For now, if you want to see a little more, you can check out the Trentasei Facebook page.

---

Singletrack Merch

Singletrack Sponsored Features

Featured Premier Partner

---

Join our mailing list to receive Singletrack editorial wisdom directly in your inbox.

Each newsletter is headed up by an exclusive editorial from our team and includes stories and news you don’t want to miss.

---