I have a 26 inch wheel Fisher Tassajara, and just bought the 29 inch Fisher Cobia for $750.
It is so much more of a bike, both in comfort and in speed. Heavier even than the Tassajara, but that is no drawback for me.
Being basically a roadie, I have always felt the cockpit of mtbs to be too short. The Cobia medium 17.5 inch fits my 5'6'' frame perfectly. It is nonsense that these 29ers are just for big guys, and it is nonsense that they are no good on the road, or that they are just for technical stunts.
There is so much inertia to the bike because of its weight, that it flies on the flats, roars downhill, and maintains momentum uphill. I fell in with 5 guys who were on carbon road bikes. We did several miles on the flat, then took a famous local hill which is a gut wrencher. I led on the flat and was second up the hill. Those guys were in their 30's, and I am 61. I could never have done that on my Tassajara.
It is the most fun I have had biking, even more fun than my road bicycle, which I love. I don't feel beat up afterward, and the workout is first rate.
I tried a fancy-schmancy $2800 light steel 29er (can't even remember the name), and it had nothing on the Fisher 29er.
Get one!