Teased at Sea Otter, the new Esker Lorax 32 takes the brand’s popular drop-bar mountain bike platform and tweaks the geometry to work around 32-inch wheels. They need at least 20 pre-orders to make it a reality. Learn more here…

Esker Cycles has been transparent about their interest and involvement with the 32-inch platform. Last summer, they started working on 32-inch versions of the Lorax and Japhy, which they’ve been testing and tweaking. At this year’s Sea Otter, Esker had a prototype Lorax 32 hiding in plain sight at the Maxxis booth, with little information available to the public. We checked in with Esker’s founder/owner, Tim Krueger, to get the lowdown, and we’re excited to see that the project is moving forward.

Like the 29-inch version, the Lorax 32 is a go-everywhere drop-bar mountain bike, but with tweaked geometry and specs to accommodate 32-inch wheels. It’s designed around 32 x 2.2″ tires (but clears 2.4″), uses Esker’s adjustable Portage dropouts, and features a rigid 495mm axle-to-crown fork, like Esker’s new Fork Yeah! fork, but there are others.

The Lorax 32 is built up around a seamless, quadruple-butted 4130 Chromoly steel tubes, UDH dropouts, and boost hub spacing. Like the 29er version, the frame is plastered with mounting points, including top-tube bosses, three-pack mounts in the main triangle and under the downtube, and rack mounts. The Lorax 32 is available in four sizes (M-XXL), and all feature a 68.5°/69° head tube angle, a 99mm bottom bracket drop, a 73.5°/74° effective seat tube angle, and 470-485mm chainstays.

Getting yourself a Lorax 32 is a little different than Esker’s usual bike launches, because the team isn’t totally sure how this whole 32-inch thing will shake out. Esker’s production runs are 100 frames, which is a large financial commitment for a small brand. To reduce some of the risk, they need to pre-sell 20 frames to bring the Lorax 32 to production. After they reach 20, production and shipping take 120 days; if they don’t reach 20, orders will be canceled and refunded. However, their gut feeling is that they’ll soon be delivering Lorax 32s to excited customers.

Pre-orders are for a frame and fork, but those who place an order will have the option to build a complete bike closer to the delivery date. The starting price is $1,250 USD for a Lorax 32 frame with a Fork Yeah! fork in their ED Black Darkness color. For $1,400, you can get the frame, fork, and a paint job in either “Aurora,” a dark metallic purple, or “Desert,” a bright orange. There’s also the option to upgrade to an ENVE Mountain carbon fork for either option.

Tim put together a video that explains the Lorax 32 project, why they’re excited about it, and the pre-order process. Watch that just above, and then head over to EskerCycles.com to place your order.

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