LeBron James' Custom 32in Canyon Grizl CF Gravel Bike
Canyon has built a gravel bike for LeBron James that looks less like a size upgrade and more like a quiet revolution. The German brand has created a 3XL Grizl CF with 32in wheels, engineered specifically for the 6ft 9in NBA star – and it’s a true one-off.
This isn’t a case of simply stretching an existing frame to fit a taller rider. Down in southern Germany, Canyon’s gravel lead engineer Wolfgang Kohl and his team had to start again.
“The geometry might land in the right place, but the loads don't scale the way the dimensions do. Everything needed to get re-engineered or the bike simply wouldn't function as a responsive system to the rider,” Kohl says.
That’s the crux of it. Make it bigger and it breaks. Re-engineer it and it rides.
A Giant Bike for a Giant Rider
The result is a 3XL Grizl CF that goes far beyond an extended seatpost and a long stem. The bike rolls on 32in wheels and uses a special carbon layup designed to cope with the forces James can put through the frame. At his size and power, every sprint, every out-of-the-saddle effort, multiplies the stress on the chassis.
To keep the structure tight and precise, Canyon has fitted custom CNC‑machined thru-axles with wider Boost spacing, plus a bespoke seat clamp. These aren’t cosmetic tweaks. They’re structural solutions to a very specific problem: how to make a bike that responds sharply under a rider who dwarfs standard sizing charts.
James has felt the mismatch before.
“On most bikes I've ridden, I was aware of the bike, where it didn't fit me, what I was working around,” he says. This time, that sensation disappeared. “This is the first one that I didn't have to think about. That's what I love most about riding. It's just you out there and everything else is gone.”
For a rider used to having equipment built around him on the basketball court, this is the cycling equivalent – finally.
32in Wheels: Hype, Experiments and a Reluctant Industry
The wheel size is what grabs the headlines. Thirty-two inches. Oversized, controversial, and for now, very rare.
Canyon insists this Grizl is “one of a kind”, even though it is “fully functional”. The message is clear: this is a custom project for an extraordinary rider, not a quiet launch of a new platform. At least not yet.
Scott took a similar path. Its 32in bikes helped Robin Gemperle win the 2026 Unbound XL and carried Cameron Jones through the 200‑mile Unbound course. Those bikes proved the concept in brutal real-world conditions. Scott still called them “pure prototypes” and shut the door on any production run.
BMC followed the same script. Its athletes raced a 32in prototype at the Andorran round of the XC World Cup in July 2025. The bike was visible, the interest was real, but the answer afterwards was blunt: no plans to release a 32in model.
So the pattern holds. Big brands are dabbling, testing, winning even, but not committing. The experiments are on the front line; the catalogues remain conservative. For now, it’s the smaller, bespoke builders who are willing to plant a flag in the 32in camp.
Yet the ground is shifting.
The Case for Going Big
Tyre giant Schwalbe has already nailed its colours to the mast. In January, it said it is “fully convinced” by the 32in format and confirmed it will release 32in tyres next year. The prototypes are already out in the wild – James’ custom Grizl wears 32in G‑One RX rubber.
Merida is moving too. Stephan Seitz confirmed in March that the company is developing both gravel and cross-country mountain bikes around 32in wheels. He went further, predicting that 32in will become the performance standard by the spring of next year.
That’s not cautious language. That’s a timeline.
The logic is simple: bigger wheels roll faster over rough ground, carry momentum, and smooth out chatter. On paper, they suit taller riders especially well, aligning body proportions with wheel and frame dimensions in a way 29ers sometimes can’t. In the real world, though, they demand rethought frames, reworked components and a supply chain willing to play along.
Which brings us back to LeBron.
The Perfect Test Pilot
If there is an ideal rider to showcase 32in gravel, it’s a 6ft 9in global superstar who lives in a world of custom everything. James is exactly the kind of athlete who exposes the limits of standard sizing. When he says this is the first bike he hasn’t had to think about, that’s a powerful endorsement of both the geometry and the wheel size.
Right now, he’s the one reaping the benefits of Canyon’s experiment. The rest of the market watches from the sidelines, waiting to see whether this is a one-off curiosity or a glimpse of the near future.
Canyon, Scott and BMC still treat 32in as an intriguing side project, not a product line. Yet tyre makers are all-in, and at least one major bike brand expects 32s to dominate performance setups within a year.
LeBron James already has his. How long before everyone else gets the chance to find out what 32 inches really feels like?
