Originally Posted by
JanMM
That's 700C, not mm. I doubt the bike came from REI with both those wheels. You should be able to Google the bike model to see if it was a 700c or 26" wheeled bike. Or, go to the REI site, if the bike is recent. Do the brakes work? Are the tires similar? Does the bike work for you? Didn't cost much, did it?
No, it's actually a nominal 700 mm. The "c" is for the rim design specs. A 700 wheel with a 35 mm tire is approximately 700 mm in diameter.
Several years ago a lot of bikes were designed with smaller front wheels. These were popular with the tri-athletes, I think for a perceived aero-dynamic advantage of the smaller front wheel. Terry bicycles has continued to build some women's specific frames with smaller front wheels that allow for a shorter top tube to better fit people with shorter torsos.
Al