When Taz Wadie decided he wanted a 36-inch-wheeled bike to use at the Dirty Reiver gravel event in the UK, he turned to his friend Andrew Stevenson at Stooge Cycles. The result is a unique titanium singlespeed that has Stooge wondering if 36″ bikes might make sense for long-distance riding. Find the development story of this one-of-a-kind Stooge 36er here…

Words and photos by Andrew Stevenson

My good friend Taz and I have a long history of him asking for whacked-out bikes, but a couple of months ago, he got in touch with the most hair-brained idea of them all: “I want a 36er race bike to win the Dirty Reiver and crush the world with my man-sized rooster.” Those might have been his exact words. We briefly met up to discuss how this thing might look and pondered how in the hell it was all going to work out.

I’ve only had a very passing interest in 36ers over the years, so being faced with suddenly having to design one felt like a pretty exciting challenge. I’ve designed a couple of frames specifically for Taz over the years, so I know exactly what size the cockpit needed, but everything else was pretty much up in the air. I won’t go into specifics, but the bike has a 67° head angle, 100mm offset fork, 140mm BB drop, and short chainstays for a 36er. Our idea, or at least our desire, was that it should still ride and steer like a Stooge.

stooge 36er

The proof was in the pudding once the bike was built up, and Taz popped around with it to let me have a maiden voyage. I had no idea what to expect other than wishful thinking based on my knowledge of designing much smaller bikes these last 10 years. I had no clue how those massive hoops would affect the handling/steering. Within 20 yards, I realized that this thing was an absolute blast, with quick and sable steering that felt just like my regular bikes. The sight of that massive front wheel sitting in front of your stem is pretty crazy, but if you could close your eyes, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between this and a 29er Stooge. What happens when it’s doing 50 miles an hour down a massive hill, though? That’s for Taz to find out, but I have a feeling all will be good. If not, well, he’s had a good life.

The full build weighs 28 pounds, so it’s pretty light for a 36er. Taz will be able to talk about the spec a lot more than me, but there are carbon Nexty rims on there, Monolith Menhir bars (Taz’s company), and a nice smattering of Wolf Tooth brown. I think I might actually have had my head turned by this bike. All the way along, I thought of it as a bit of a novelty exercise, but having ridden it, I’m now fighting the itch to get one built for myself. The way it scoots across the gravel is incredibly smooth, and I imagine it would be amazing as a long-distance steed. Plus, how can you not laugh and be happy on a bike that looks like this?

  • stooge 36er
  • stooge 36er
stooge 36er

Words by Taz Wadie

I first had a ride on a 36er about 14 years ago, and whist it was an “interesting” experience, it was a bit of a one-trick pony and somewhat crap overall. I’ve always been interested in experimenting with wheel sizes and was playing with 42mm unicycle rims and the widest 29er tyres you could get at 8-10 psi (before 29+ became a thing). I always had a thought that it should be possible to get really big wheels into a bike and still have it handle well, so it’s been sitting in the back of my mind for ages. I see no point in 32″, which is as nearly as big as Duro Crux 29 x 3.25″ but without the grip and cush (like the old 27.5+/29er vibe).

I’ve known Andy at stooge since he first started up, and he gave us one of his first five singlespeed MK1s as a prize when we organized the Single Speed UK champs in 2014. We got got a bit drunk, we talked mad bikes, alt handlebars, wide tyres, and punk bands, and a firm Friendship was formed.

  • stooge 36er
  • stooge 36er

It was a total no-brainer to get Stooge to design this with me as we had already done the Ti speedball 29+ (originally planned as two bikes only for Andy and me) and the Motobastard, which is a one-off Ti 29 + hooligan. The biggest challenge was to get Andy to stop laughing and calling me a mad bastard, but once we had a good old chat over coffee and I had had shown him my ideas on paper, he jumped on board. He still hasn’t stopped calling me a mad bastard, though!

The goal was to make a super fast, comfortable, stable bike for big old ultra-distance stuff, bikepacking, gravel racing, and a little bit of attention grabbing. It was also to keep the rear wheel as tucked as possible so it’s still easy to lift the front wheel and get the geometry and fork offset dialled so the steering is light to overcome the gyroscopic effect of big wheels turning.

  • Frame/Fork: Custom one off Stooge WTF 36er
  • Hubs: Hope Pro5 hubs
  • Rims: Nextie Unicorn 40mm carbon rims
  • Spokes: Custom cut spokes
  • Tires: Vee Tire T Monster 36 x 2.25″
  • Handlebar: Titanium Monolith Menhir 2 bend flat bars (820mm wide, 5° forward sweep, 17° backsweep)
  • Grips: Wolf Tooth Fatpaw XL
  • Stem: ENVE Alloy MTB
  • Headset: Wolf Tooth ZS44/EC44 in espresso
  • Cranket: UnitCo 175mm
  • Pedals: Look X-track Carbon
  • Rear Cog: Ti 22T that was in the spares pile
  • Brakes: TRP Slate with Oak components levers
  • Seatpost: Enve carbon inline
  • Saddle: Ergon SM Pro
  • Other Parts: Monolith Ti Bottle Cage, Bentley CNC Brass Top Cap, Woolf Tooth espresso seat clamp and bolts
  • stooge 36er
  • stooge 36er

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