Quote Originally Posted by Kimmyt View Post

Triskeliongirl, please explain something to me (me and Physics never really got along well in college....) if the same rider were to ride two bikes, one with 650c wheels and one with 700c wheels, at the same energy output level, would the rider travel the same distance? Thanks!

K.
YES! It is true that with smaller wheels you need to be sure that you have the appropriate choice of gears, since most of the stuff out there was made with 700c wheels in mind, but that is the point of gears. You may need to select a different gear to compensate for the change in tire diameter, but assuming you select the same gear ratio and input the same effort you will move forward the same distance. To see for yourself, read about gearing and play with the calculator at sheldon brown's website. While its expensive to buy a terry new, they are often available on ebay for much less, in part due to a bias that many women have that they want a bike with the same size wheels, or 700c wheels. But it is hard to buy used the first time when you don't know what you are doing.