I'm 5'6" and love my 29er conversion. It rides excellent through SoCal's terrain. I think tall v.s. short depends on your comfort level geometry wise & I have strong legs so the big wheels aren't as much of an issue. The only thing funny about it is how low my seat is during climbing (being that I'm short) compared to other people's setups you'll see here
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The seat's about 2" lower than it normally is for climbing there but you get the idea ;-).