29"ers, Pros and Cons?

[thegrumpybiker]

Another potential bike in my Urban hybrid, does a bit of everything, everyday bike is a Marin Muirwoods. They do this in a 29" wheel option, which is apparently good for speed and taking the rough out of bumps etc. Other than weight factors and expense/difficulty of finding suitable tyres and tubes are there any other cons or pros to 29s or is it all marketing hype?

 

[WeeE]

I thought mine were 28, but apparently they're nearer 29 - mine's a European-built
bike, stepover thing with a modern sort of thick-tube U-shape. (Basically a town bike but with front suspension - great for crappy-surfaced Glasgow roads - & our usual sort of gears for our usual sorts of hills. (Kenda tyres, middle bit with road-chevron type pattern, knobblier at the very edge)

Bigger wheels - it does make for a really enjoyable, smooth ride. Since it's my first bike I don't have much to compare it with for nippiness, but I don't feel any lack of nipping. In some way I can't explain, it seems to make nipping redundant: the stateliness factor, but I don't know how that works. The nearest I can get to describing it, something everyone notices - (? to do with wheel size as well as the fact that my bike's a few pounds heavier) - momentum. It just rolls on forever when you freewheel. Kerbs and minor potholes don't disturb those big wheels - you tend to take a much more gentle, open line somehow, need to turn the wheel less.

My bike does a bit of everything: more shopping than I can literally carry (20kg) and I don't notice it in the panniers.

 

[Weegie]

Another potential bike in my Urban hybrid, does a bit of everything, everyday bike is a Marin Muirwoods. They do this in a 29" wheel option, which is apparently good for speed and taking the rough out of bumps etc.

You mean one of these?

Isn't this exactly the same as a normal hybrid with 700C wheels, like this?

 

[thegrumpybiker]

Yes, one of those.
I'm currently riding a cheap and cheerful 700 wheel hybrid and wonder if a 29" (which is bigger by 37 mm) wheeled bike would be a noticably different ride. And thanks WeeE for your helpful and articulate words.