I had a co-worker of mine who is a total hammer head and while he’s a fearsome he’s under 5’7″ and could not adjust his riding style to a 29″ bike but when he opted to build a 650b he felt that he could push it far harder than when he was riding a 29″ bike.

My buddy let my 5’5″ wife borrow his 29″ bike before he sold in and she fell in love with the 29″ format. Up to that point she was riding 26″ wheeled bike with a 100mm travel fork but after riding her first “niner” she said that she’d never go back to a 26″ bike.

I’m not sure to make of all this other than there’s a lot to be said about personal preference and riding style.

My former coworker has a bmx background and is used to hyperactive handling smaller wheeled bikes and he spends a lot of air time on his bike – any excuse to launch himself over a rock garden or over a log is okay with him.

My wife, on the other hand is nowhere as aggressive as a rider but she’s ridden World Cup class race courses with Hussefelt pedals and Crocks.

That said, however, she has come to her own conclusion that she enjoys many of the benefits that a lot of other 29″ converts have experienced, a more comfortable ride, better high speed stability; the ability to crush small objects with a single bound.

A year later I got the opportunity to ride and ultimately buy a Fisher Rig in my size and realized that everything people had been telling me was wrong!! The 29er did everything the big wheel was promised to and more despite my small size. In fact, I have never found my “small” size to be a problem in riding a 29er and have never felt the need to go back to riding my 26″ bike. I currently ride and race a Fisher Paragon with G2 and find this to be my favorite bike so far. It’s much quicker handling than the rig (which is admittedly pretty sluggish through twisty singletrack) yet still maintains all the benefits of riding a 29er.

It is good these kind of discussions do not become a men-thing.