It appears the general consensus is 29 and I have demoed both with the 26 being a women's specific and had a lot of fun in the quick flowy parts, but had a hard time getting used to it in the rocky switchbacky stuff and am thinking at first the suspension was too soft, so after we fixed that it was better. I'm also thinking since it's so responsive and quick to change direction, everything happened faster which surprised me a lot.

When I rode the men's Specialized Camber 29 I noticed it just rode over the big stuff so easily and seemed to be a smoother ride, less jarring than the women's Specialized Safire 26.

As of right now, I am just confused, I thought I would fall in love with the women's 26 but felt pretty out of control, which had a lot to do with the suspension bouncing me around for a while til we stiffened it up a bit. Any experiences similar or strong opinions either way?