Earlier this year, we had an interesting customer approach us with the idea of building him a 32" gravel bike. We said yes to exploring the project right away. Why? He had clear arguments and goals for this bike. He knew what he wanted from it and where he expected the 32" wheels to improve his riding experience. That gave us a reason to start designing.
A Scarab with 32" wheels? Yes. This is our first. We didn't want to do one just because of the hype. We wanted to do one because it answered a specific rider's needs. That rider is Jorge from Ecuador.
Jorge has been riding and racing bikes his whole life. He has a soft spot for everything related to the "unpaved." He has competed in many MTB races in the high and rough Andes of Ecuador, where technical skill and fitness are pushed to the max. He's won many times in his category. Clearly, Jorge knows what he wants. And we want to make that happen.
His brief: "I want a gravel bike that I can use to roll through stuff. Something that can keep speed on rough terrain while holding an aggressive gravel position, rather than an MTB-style one. I spend most of my time riding off pavement and only use it to connect sections. I need this to be fast!"
Our learnings
I explained to Jorge that I had been waiting for the right opportunity to build our first 32" bike. And what better opportunity than to use our Páramo base model as the starting point?
Over the years, we've had the chance to work with many Páramo users and adapt the model to their very specific needs: riding terrain, capabilities such as touring, rider size, tire sizes, etc. We've learned that each rider has their own way of interpreting riding and that our job is to create a bike that handles the way they envision it.
A gravel bike can be tweaked by changing aspects of its geometry and setup, such as trail, chainstay length, front-center length, wheelbase, stem length, weight distribution, and many more. The complex thing is that they all work in synchrony. One affects the other, and they can't be fully isolated. But the MASSIVE changes we've found over the years come with wheel size and tire size. Those really change how a bike feels.
And to be clear, we don't believe that bigger wheels or tires make a better bike. First, show me the rider, then how they ride and what they want to achieve with it. Then we define a tire and wheel size that delivers and fits.
Our custom process gives us the flexibility to change a lot. The design process tells us what we should change, what we should preserve, and why.
The Páramo platform
This iteration of the model felt exactly right. Páramo has gone through years of experimentation and evolution: sliding dropouts, big tire clearance on the Ultra (700 × 58), suspension forks, and, of course, MANY 650B vs. 700C debates, including testing the same bike with both wheelsets.
That experience gave us a starting point for Jorge's project. His brief brought two priorities together: carrying speed through rough terrain and keeping an aggressive gravel position. The larger wheels were worth exploring, but their diameter alone wouldn't resolve the brief. We had to design the bike around them and around Jorge.
The challenge
Dial in the right geometry for Jorge and select the materials to make this Páramo still be a Páramo: a gravel bike designed around his position and intended handling, with the larger wheels working as part of the whole.
We couldn't simply add clearance and call it done. The wheel size had to be considered alongside the frame dimensions, steering geometry, rider position, and material selection.
Chainstays, seatstays, the down tube, and the top tube had to be specifically sourced to achieve the required lengths, wall thicknesses, and diameters. Longer tubes were part of the solution, but length wasn't the only criterion. We also had to consider how those tubes would work together.
The real challenge was the fork. Jorge wanted integrated cable routing, and we wanted a fork designed specifically for this gravel bike. Wheel clearance was only one requirement. Its dimensions and offset also had to work with the frame geometry and Jorge's riding position. A rigid 29er fork wasn't automatically the right answer just because it could accommodate a large wheel.
The result: a steel fork crafted to meet the specific requirements of this 32" gravel bike, with integrated cable routing to match the frame's cable management.
The project was completed with plenty of special parts to match the riding concept.
- Wheelset: Astral Wanderlust 32" wheels.Groupset:
- SRAM RED AXS / mullet setup.Cockpit:
- ENVE IN-Route stem and handlebar, paired with a Thomson titanium seatpost.
For us, the point of this project was to bring Jorge's brief into a coherent design. The wheels, geometry, tubes, fork, and riding position all had to answer the same set of goals. Our manufacturing flexibility gave us room to find that solution. Jorge's intended use gave us the criteria to make the decisions.
We loved working out the design of this steel fork. The Páramo 32" can now be requested with it, as well as the now-available Zero Components carbon fork designed specifically for 32" gravel bikes. As with Jorge's project, the starting point is the rider and what they want the bike to do.