Just when mountain bike wheel sizes seemed to be settling down (basically desensitizing us to the idea of 32″ wheels becoming normal), Cube has something new.
Cube Action Team rider Zakarias Johansen has been spotted in Finale Ligure preparing for the 2026 Enduro World Championships aboard a modified Cube Fritzz with a 30.5-inch front wheel and 29-inch rear. Cube posted it on social media, and eagle-eyed viewers caught on easily.
So, basically a mullet. Except the big wheel is now bigger than a 29er.
The setup appears to be very much in the prototype stage. Johansen is reportedly the only rider at Enduro Worlds using a 30.5-inch front wheel, and Cube isn’t saying much about what they’ve changed on the bike or whether they plan to put the new size into production. Still, lining it up at a World Championship is a pretty big step beyond rolling around a parking lot on a prototype.
Cube Goes 30.5/29
Johansen’s bike is based on the recently released Cube Fritzz, but the normal 29-inch front wheel has been swapped for the new 30.5-inch setup.
From the side, the difference is surprisingly hard to spot. The front wheel is only 1.5 inches larger in diameter than the 29-inch rear, so it doesn’t have the cartoonish look you might expect from some of the 32-inch prototypes we’ve been seeing lately.
The idea also sits somewhere between a normal 29er and the 32-inch wheel experiments popping up across XCO and DH racing. At the Downhill World Championships, Martin Maes went much more extreme with a 32-inch front wheel and a 27.5-inch rear. Johansen’s 30.5/29 setup looks almost conservative by comparison. Kinda.
Why Stop at 30.5 Inches?
The basic argument for a bigger wheel hasn’t changed since 29ers started taking over mountain biking. A larger wheel should carry speed better through rough terrain and roll over holes, rocks, and roots more easily.
But there’s a point where bigger wheels start creating their own problems. Packing them into a short frame gets harder, weight goes up, and forks get complicated. Thirty-two-inch wheels exaggerate all of that.
A 30.5-inch wheel offers a smaller jump from 29 inches, which could make it easier to get some of the rollover benefit without redesigning the entire bike around a huge wheel.
The Fox Podium Apparently Has Room
One of the more interesting details is the fork. Johansen is using the inverted Fox Podium, and it doesn’t appear to have a dedicated 30.5-inch fork.
That’s an important detail. Simply fitting a larger front wheel raises the front of the bike and changes the geometry, so there’s almost certainly more going on than just swapping a different wheel into an otherwise untouched race bike. But we don’t know exactly what magic Cube used to make it work. We’re gonna have to wait and hear more from the riders themselves.
Schwalbe Has the 30.5-Inch Magic Mary
A new wheel size is only useful if someone makes a tire for it. Schwalbe has that part covered.
Johansen’s Cube is running a 30.5-inch Schwalbe Magic Mary up front. The wheel also looks different from Cube’s usual Newmen setup. Newmen already has experience playing with larger wheel sizes, including 32-inch wheels, so another diameter apparently wasn’t out of the question.
Do We Really Need Another Wheel Size?
Maybe not, but people have said the same thing before.
Mountain biking currently has 26, 27.5, 29, 30.5, and 32-inch wheels floating around in one form or another. Add all the possible mullet combinations and the tire wall at your local bike shop could get interesting.
The obvious question is whether 30.5 inches has enough of an advantage over 29 to justify its existence.
That was essentially the question our editor, Zach, asked back in April when rumors of the size first started circulating. At the time, 30.5 looked like it might get buried as the industry pushed toward 32-inch wheels. Now Cube is racing one. But oddly enough, that was for a dropbar bike, not anything near off-road.
Can We Just Call It 750d?
750d uses a 660mm bead seat diameter, sitting between a 29-inch/700c wheel at 622mm and a 32-inch setup at 686mm. WTB previously showed the format on a Moots prototype at MADE, giving us an early look at what an oversized gravel wheel could look like.
At the time, 30.5 inches looked like it could become the new 27.5: a middle step created for riders or bikes where the biggest possible wheel doesn’t quite work. That could make a lot of sense for gravel, but gravel seems to be under the 32″ spell currently.
Keep an eye out, like it or not, 30.5″ (750d) wheels might be coming to a race near you.
