I "upgraded" from a 26" Schwinn to a 27.5" Giant FS-I still miss that old Schwinn and all the crazy things I could do on it. Maybe I just miss my youth (71 now). I rode several 29ers before I got the 27.5 and they always felt unwieldy to me. I'm 5'10". But after riding a FS bike I was convinced that was what I wanted. My mistake. I lock out the rear suspension on most trails because I like it stiff and then I'm just dragging extra weight around, except when I hit a more technical trail, which are few and far between around here. Then I readjust it. My first true MTB was a Raleigh 26" hard tail. Hated the shifting on it-for some reason couldn't keep it tuned. I traded it straight across for the Schwinn hard tail. We were both happy.