The anti-32-inch answer you didn’t know you needed

While the threat of the 32-inch wheel buzzes through the bike world, Kyoot Bikes (pronounced cute) is heading in the opposite direction. The exact opposite direction. They’re building bikes with small wheels, steel frames and a philosophy that pushes back against what the majority of the bike industry is chasing.

“I’m super used to riding a small bike,” says 6’4″, 275-pound co-founder Phil Bailey. “All my mountain bikes… I just destroyed wheels. Then the next thing I would break would be the suspension. I kind of just gave up on mountain biking.”

That frustration, plus a trip to Japan, helped spark something different.

A Japan trip, a pandemic and a pivot

While travelling in Japan in 2016 the husband and wife team behind Kyoot, noticed something. Small-wheeled bikes were everywhere. Not high-end ones, but commuters, BMX bikes with long seatposts, people making it work.

“I didn’t really know what a mini velo was,” he says. “But I saw lots of people just riding BMX bikes with super high seat posts.”

The idea stuck. Fast forward to COVID. Bailey worked for BMX brand Odyssey at the time. They’d all been working from home during the lockdown. Him and his wife Liz had a newborn. But when Odyssey wanted to return to the office, it just didn’t line up with the life they wanted.

“So yeah we quit,” he says. “I was like well I don’t know how to do anything else… I can do this.”

And Kyoot Bikes was born.

Finding a niche no one else wanted

The pitch sounds odd at first. A high-quality small-wheeled bike that rides like a BMX but pedals like a commuter. Not folding, not fragile, not cheap. And that’s exactly the point.

“You can’t really buy a high quality mini velo bike that’s a complete bike ready to go,” says Liz Bailey. “It was not available readily in the United States.”

That gap became their lane. The bikes lean heavily on Phil’s BMX background, but with modern touches; gears, disc brakes, longer geometry. Something you can ride hard without worrying about it falling apart.

“I want just enough BMX. I’m not gonna go grind down a rail anymore,” he says. “I wanna do the pedaling part but also the jibby stuff… and not worry about the bike.”

Built for real riding, not trends

There’s a quiet resistance built into Kyoot. Against folding bikes that creak, against overbuilt e-bikes, against the constant push toward bigger wheels and more complexity.

“The folding mechanism… it adds…