When we move to larger wheel diameters, vibration transmitted through the bike often decreases. So, does this hold up for 32″ bikes too?
Bike-Test.com recently conducted a controlled vibration analysis comparing 29 and 32-inch wheel sizes over a series of standardised obstacles, isolating the effect of wheel diameter.
If you aren’t aware, vibration is an important performance factor for off-road riding. Lower vibration is typically associated with greater comfort, reduced upper-body fatigue, and improved control on rough terrain. This is why we’ve spent so much time at the CYCLINGABOUT Comfort Lab testing the vibration damping of different bikes and components.
Right, let’s now find out if 32″ bikes can reduce overall vibration.
29 vs 32″ Bike Vibration Test
Bike-Test used the same Bike Ahead Composites bike and simply swapped between 29 and 32-inch wheelsets. This approach keeps as many variables as possible under control. Rider position, suspension setup, and frame geometry were all kept identical, meaning wheel size was effectively the only changing factor in the test.
The larger wheels and tyres added roughly 700 grams to the bike, and both setups used Maxxis Aspen tyres with the same width, casing, and tread pattern.
To help contextualise the vibration results, the hardtails were also compared to a current 29-inch Orbea Oiz full-suspension bike. This bike offers 120 mm of front and rear suspension travel and weighs about 2 kg more than the 32-inch hardtail.
For the test, a smartphone was mounted on the top tube, and its accelerometer recorded vibrations as the bikes rolled over a controlled obstacle course of wooden slats mounted on boards. Each bike was tested 10 times.
All bikes were tested using the same tyre pressure, which introduces a small limitation. As shown in a previous article, larger wheels experience higher hoop stress (or tyre drop) at the same pressure, meaning the 32-inch tyre effectively runs slightly firmer than the 29-inch tyre. So, strictly speaking, the test isn’t a perfect apples-to-apples comparison.
You can see Bike-Test’s full test HERE.
Vibration Test Results
The 32-inch wheels produced less vibration overall, giving the bike a noticeably calmer ride.
Peak impacts were 2% lower on the 32-inch bike (9.2 g vs 9.4 g), but the total accumulated vibration dropped by about 5%. The variation between the lowest and highest impacts also decreased slightly, by around 2%.
One reason why this occurs is that each bump or impact represents a smaller proportion of the wheel’s overall diameter, allowing it to be “smoothed out” more effectively as the wheel rolls over it.
However, when compared to the 29-inch full-suspension bike, the advantages of rear suspension and longer travel were still much more pronounced: peak impacts were 11% lower, total vibrations dropped 14%, and overall variability in impacts decreased by 25%.
In other words, larger wheels improve vibration damping on a hardtail, but the effect is small compared with the advantage of a heavier, full-suspension bike with longer suspension travel.
Summary
These results point to a small but perceptible comfort benefit in favour of the larger wheel size. And it’s reasonable to suspect that if the testers had instead matched for hoop stress (or tyre drop) between the two wheel sizes, the difference might have been even more pronounced.
Taken together, this adds another advantage to the case for 32-inch wheels over 29-inch wheels, alongside benefits that already include:
If you’d like to know more about the science of 32″ wheel bikes, make sure to check out my other articles.