Revel hasn’t exactly been quiet about its interest in 32-inch wheels, having revealed a 32-inch-wheeled prototype at Sea Otter earlier this year. But now, the brand has committed to big wheels, claiming to be “taking our mission statement to the next level”.
The El Jeffe is a bike that’s sat in Revel’s lineup since 2020, and the titanium-framed bike has been positioned as the do-it-all machine that’s capable of slaying singletrack and big ol’ bikepacking expeditions. But with the El Jeffe Grande, the brand has taken that intention and moulded it to work best with bigger wheels.
The El Jeffe Grande benefits from a geometry that is tuned especially for 32-inch wheels, so a large frame has a 480mm reach, a 67.5-degree head tube angle, a 72.7-degree seat tube angle, and an adjustable chainstay that offers lengths from 440mm to 457mm, thanks to a sliding dropout. Oh, and that dropout is UDH-compatible, and the frame is designed to work with a 100mm suspension fork.
Revel has then applied traditional (kind of) wheel size mixing to the El Jeffe Grande, and impressively, offers a size small. That small size rolls on a mega-mullet wheelset, so a 29-inch hoop at the rear combined with a 32-inch wheel up front. That small frame then offers clearance for a 29×2.6-inch rear tyre, whereas larger sizes offer space for a 32×2.4-inch tyre.
To build the rather sleek-looking titanium frame, Revel has combined titanium tubing with 3D-printed titanium components, and that’s clearest at the head tube. Claiming that the head tube ‘matters most’, owing to the fact that the bigger wheels need a shorter head tube and a longer fork, there’s a lot of leverage put through the head tube. Revel then mentioned that standard titanium welding techniques don’t produce the level of strength needed; thus, the move to 3D-printed parts. Apparently, the head tube has been tested beyond standard mountain bike requirements, so it’s a stiffer and stronger front end, but it has also enabled the brand to tidy up the El Jeffe Grande’s cable routing.
As 32-inch wheels are new for a lot of brands, including Revel, the brand’s founder, Adam Miller, weighed in with some thoughts:
“A lot of 32” bikes have pretty strange geometry. To me, most of them feel awkward, like they’ve just been stretched out to fit the wheels.
“Figuring out how to get the handling right with these big wheels took a lot of trial and error. When we showed the Concept Labs bikes at Sea Otter, we knew it wasn’t quite ready to bring to market, but it was a good way to share some of our development process.
“We wanted to make a proper hardtail mountain bike, and we only want to sell bikes we’re truly excited about. So, after more prototypes and a lot of tweaking to the geometry, we’ve made something that we are really proud of, and we’re psyched to get it out there.”
If you’re up for a bit of titanium 32-inch goodness, Revel’s El Jeffe Grande is available as a frame-only, and it’ll set you back £2,999. Frames are available to reserve now with a £500 deposit, and Revel promises that frames will ship in December.
