impact of wheel size?

[neil54]

Hi all, I hope you are well, I've had a TSDZ2 for a few years on an old Trek mountain bike, I use it daily for a 16 mile round trip commute, sometimes pulling a trailer weighing about 20kg.

The commute is flat all the way, mainly on a canal path, I'm thinking of changing the donor bike as I would like disc brakes and maybe larger wheels. There are lots of good second hand hybrids out there, a Cannondale quick cx has come up cheap as the crank needs replacing which would obviously be ideal. Couple of questions if people don't mind:

1 - would I notice much difference between 26" and 700c wheels? I currently run fairly skinny tyres on the bike and generally ride at about 20mph all the way. I'm therefore wondering if I would notice any difference in speed, battery consumption or riding experience with bigger wheels?

2 - The Cannondale quick has the cables under the BB as per the attached photo, would I be able to remove the guide and let the cables run between BB and Motor?

Any input on either of those would be great, thanks all!

 

[lnanek]

Bigger wheels are like going up a gear. Each revolution brings your bike farther distance. So less torque and hill climbing ability in exchange for higher top speed.

 

[amberwolf]

If you don't want the "gear change" caused by the larger wheel, you can change the front chainring (or rear sprockets) to change ratio back to what it used to be. (or if you need more torque than speed, gear it even lower).

Regarding the cable-guide/etc, there's a recent thread showing the same kind of issue and some solutions; don't recall which middrive it was for.

 

[BalorNG]

Given similarly skinny tires, 700c will be *marginally* more comfortable/better rolling.
The main benefit is that there is now a ton of great 'gravel' tires that roll great not just due to size, but construction (tread/compounds/casing).

However, Continental Urban is perhaps the best bang for your buck if you don't need much traction for offroad.

 

[LewTwo]

High pressure, skinny tires work well on consistent, smooth, hard surfaces (i.e. good pavement).
One is better served by a somewhat wider tire on any other type of riding surface.