Hi,



You are not that small that a 16" has much advantage over a 20". If your young,
lightweight and by default reasonably fit you can go very fast compared to most,
and won't need the low gears much. The same gearing on both bikes essentially
means the 20" is geared to go 25% faster than the 16" for a given pedal speed /
cadence, which is quite significant, about 2 gears.

Once you get used to the bike (which doesn't take long for the young) I think
you'll find it quite a bit undergeared to suit you. At 50+ my 20" tops out at
around 17mph long term before the pedal cadence gets too much, and I can
cruise at 15mph with the wind. I think I would find the 16" undergeared,
as 15mph would not be cruising pedal cadence with 16" wheels.

(My folder has the same 48 front / 14 to 28 rear gearing. It's 33 to 66
gear inches, same gearing with 16" is a rather geriatric 26.5 to 53,
in comparison my 14 speed road bike is 40 to 100 gear inches.)

At under a 100 lbs, lugging a 30 lb bike up a hill the weight is
is lot more significant than the same weight with me lugging
my 170 pounds up a hill. I don't need a light bike, you might
not, but you'd certainly notice a light one more than I would.

rgds, sreten.

P.S. Take that illustration with a pinch of salt. In reality the 16"
models can have lower bottom brackets and thus the right seat
height is a little lower that the 20" model, depends how much
they modify essentially the same frame for the two models.