What I've seen in most bikes that come with 26" tires is that they have higher bottom brackets than sport road & touring bikes so if you want to sit as low on a 26" bike w/ a higher bottom bracket as you would on a sport/touring bikes while maintaining the same geometry between your seat & bottom bracket, you'll have to have the handlebars farther below the saddle on the 26" bike than the 700c bike. That's not OK for me as I want my seat about level w/ my handlebars.