IMO, if youre doing a lot of road riding, this would be a waist. the 29ers are way more on the 100% off road end of the spectrum, basically the entire reason for the 29" tires. if you are going to do mostly street and/or fire road type riding, just get a normal 26" tired bike and save yourself about $500 or something close. the 29 is more for hardcore, techinacal riding