Swiss bike team Thömus Maxon is the latest to show up on the XC World Cup circuit with a 32″ prototype, this week in Lenzerheide. Now, while our Euro team is packing up to head to an ever-evolving Eurobike tradeshow next week, an industry insider reader who didn’t want to be named sent in several excellent photos of the 32″ Lightrider prototype in the pits and out on the track. It looks pretty well-refined, yet still shows some signs of continued prototype development… maybe just limited to carbon layup at this stage.
When we asked for more info from the team, they confirmed ongoing development of the 32″ cross-country project, even giving official statements from both Thömus and DT Swiss about their close collaboration on the new, bigger wheel size.
Let’s take a closer look…
Prototype Thömus Lightrider 32″ in Lenzerheide, Switzerland
Just a couple of hours up into the mountains from their team base on the shores of Lake Constance, Swiss MTB team Thömus Maxon is using their home World Cup in Lenzerheide to test a next-gen prototype of their Thömus Lightrider WC cross-country race bike with bigger wheels.
The team describes the 32″ bike as the “result of close collaboration with the team’s suppliers and development partners, in particular Thömus (bike), DT Swiss (suspension and wheels), and Schwalbe (tires)“. They see World Cup MTB racing as “a key driver of innovation for the entire bicycle industry. New technologies and developments often emerge directly from racing and later find their way into mass-produced products.”
What’s different in this 32″ prototype vs. the existing 29″ bike?
Of course, the big wheels are the biggest difference.
Looking very much like the current 29″, 120mm travel Lightrider R3 World Cup, this 32″ prototype appears to feature the exact same full-suspension layout – and the same flat, thin toptube. That’s a single pivot design with a virtual flex pivot in the seatstay, and a short rocker linkage driving an inverted shock just in front of the seattube. But it seems Thömus has minimized chainstay growth as the rear tire is noticeably closer to the main pivot and the back of the bent seattube, compared to the current 29er.
A closer study reveals there are a bunch more small changes in what may become the R4 version of Thömus’ XC race platform.
It certainly looks pretty close to production-ready…
Could a new 32″ Thömus Lightrider R4 World Cup launch already next year?
This 32″ prototype now features a more prominent kink in the seatstays just above the dropout. That could help isolate the engineered flex in the carbon rear end to a more specific area, perhaps even giving the Thömus designers better control over how the undamped spring affects overall suspension kinematics. Its carbon rocker link also looks a bit shorter than the R3 version, flipping the upper shock bolt access to the opposite side for some reason. The seatstay bridge also now arches below the stays instead of being directly between them. And unsurprisingly, the headtube appears shorter with a more forward extension to help keep bar height as low and tire:frame clearance as high as possible with the much larger front wheel.
It still uses modular internal cable routing ports on the side of the headtube, even though it appears to have a straight 1.5″ headset that could allow fully internal cabling.
A closer look at the non-driveside of the bike ridden by Mathias Flückiger at the top of this story reveals a more raw-looking carbon wrap around the disc-side chainstay, perhaps to increase stiffness beyond what came out of the mold initially. Similarly, the bike ridden by Alessandra Keller (below) appears to have additional carbon added to both the non-driveside chainstay and seatstay.
It’s also worth noting that the Thömus Maxon team built the bike up with sponsor-correct unlabeled 32″ DT forks, 32″ carbon DT Swiss XRC 1200 wheels, and 32″ Schwalbe Rick Race Pro tires – all of which look production-ready, too.
What do Thömus & DT Swiss have to say about the prototype XC bike?
We already spotted this prototype 32″ DT Swiss XC fork in Nové Město, along with two different 32″ DT wheelsets. So it’s not a surprise to see DT working on bigger wheels and collaborating with XC race teams. But this is the first official on the record statement from the wheel and suspension maker about 32″ development.
“As a supplier to the bike industry, DT Swiss supports its customers’ innovation projects and contributes its own experience in testing new component solutions under real-world conditions.”
– Nils Verhoeven, DT Swiss Director of Product Management
OK, that’s still pretty close to ‘no comment’ in my book. But Thömus offered a bit more insight…
“We are an innovative and dynamic company, and together with our partners and Team Thömus maxon, we constantly strive to develop the fastest and most innovative bike. Projects like this exemplify our open approach to developing new products and bike platforms. Together with our reliable partners and the team, we use the racing context as a foundation to build even faster bikes for our customers and riders.”
– Thomas Binggeli, Thömus CEO
Not an official statement, but I got a bit more of a feeling about when I personally spoke with Mathias Flückiger about 32″ wheels back in April, when previewing the latest DT Swiss 1500-series carbon wheels. Flückiger described testing 32″ wheels as an interesting opportunity to benefit from the additional rollover characteristics and ability to maintain speed that come from the larger diameter wheels. Although often times the bike with the larger wheels didn’t actually feel faster, back-to-back testing consistently showed faster times on the same XC tracks. Ultimately, when it comes to racing, it’s just the time on the clock that matters, not how it feels.
Will they race 32″ bikes this weekend?
Of note, two Thömus Maxon racers were spotted testing out the 32″ prototype bikes on the course with official UCI XCO World Cup number plates – Mathias Flückiger and Alessandra Keller (both of whom are of average to tall height for XC racers, 1.72m/5’8″ and 1.76m/5′-10″, respectively).
Not XCC number plates.
That suggests the 32″ prototypes won’t race this weekend. Team mechanics were probably prepping their standard 29″ bikes for tomorrow’s XC Short Track races with XCC plates. And per World Cup rules, athletes must race XCC & XCO on the same bike.
The vague reply from the Thömus Maxon team all but confirms that: “The project is currently in an intensive testing phase. Whether and when the prototype will be used in racing cannot be said at this time. Development is a process in which insights from the tests are continuously incorporated into further work.”
Still very interesting to see more and more refined 32″ prototypes out at the races. We wouldn’t be surprised to find a 32″-wheeled Thömus Lightrider R4 World Cup hit the market next year.
Update: We were wrong. The Thömus Lightrider R32 prototype not only is being raced this weekend, it has already secured a podium in its first outing. Alessandra Keller raced the first-ever 32″ cross-country mountain bike in a UCI MTB World Cup to a first-ever podium with a 3rd place finish in Friday’s Elite Women’s XCC race!
And now you can pre-order one for yourself, now! Check out our updated story, here.
