Originally Posted by
Nyah
I was hoping to stay with 700 wheels because that's what I'm accustomed to riding. I would think smaller wheels will make the bicycle more squirrely at higher speeds, in comparison to 700.
This is not correct. If you removed the 700c wheels from a bike designed for them and simply swapped in a set of 26" wheels, then, yes, it almost definitely will not handle right, and probably as you said, the 26" wheel would be more twitchy. But nobody is suggesting putting 26" wheels on a 700c bike - a bike that comes with 26" wheels will have geometry (head angle, fork rake, wheelbase) designed to work with 26" wheels, and that will make the bike handle (if not exactly, than close to) the same as the 700c bike. The key dimension is a derived dimension called 'trail' which is the distance between the point where an imaginary line drawn down the centre of your head tube intersects the ground, and the contact point of the front wheel. I would bet that if you found the 'trail' dimensions for a 700C and a 26" LHT they would be damn near the same....
Update:
I just went to this site:
Bicycle Trail Calculator | yojimg.net
which is a trail calculator, and using the geometry specs for the 700c and 26" LHTs - 37mm tire on the 700c and 50mm (2") tire on the 26", and the trail is exactly the same, 64mm.
Furthermore, the 26" bike has a slightly longer wheelbase, probably because of the slightly more slach head angle (pushing the front wheel out a bit further) which will tend to add stability, as well as ensure you don't have toe overlap like you probably will on a 700c bike (which is, I believe, why Surly doesn't make smaller LHT frames with 700C wheels. There really is no downside to the 26" wheel touring bike, and whole bunch of upsides.