Does wheel size really make people cycle faster?

[Riverman]

I own two bikes, one has 700c wheels and the other is a standard mountain bike. I much prefer the wheels on the mountain bike, as I tend to prefer to be in a higher gear and spin these wheels rather than be in a lower gear on the 700c wheels.

I think the smaller wheels on the mountain bike encourage me to go faster as I can spin them at a faster rate. This is especially true on hills, as I have a tendency to not want to shift down to the lowest gear, so will end up grinding more with the larger wheels.

 

[Theseus]

I don't think wheel size makes any difference at all compared to other things like tyre choice & pressure.

 

[ianrauk]

& Fitness

I don't think wheel size makes any difference at all compared to other things like tyre choice & pressure.

 

[Ian H]

I suspect the difference you're noticing is in the gearing rather than wheel size.

 

[Hacienda71]

I find the added weight on my mountain bike makes it harder to go up hills in equivalent gear than my road bike but my mountain has a much lower ratio chainset so a couple of gears off bottom are still lower than the bottom gear on my road bike. Also my crank arms are 175 on the roadie and 170 on the mtb so better leverage on the roadie