Having ridden my 29er HT almost exclusively for the last 2.5 years I've recently sent my forks away to Mr Loco for a bit of TLC so it wasn't an option for this evenings ride.
Out came the expensive dust catcher, a Nicolai Helius CC, I thought it wasn't to shabby before today, after this evenings ride I was absolutely bushed( I would've used more emphatic words but Stu might not like it ).
It was so much harder, physically, to cart this bike round than a 29er Ht.
Was it the 26/29 or the HT/FS that made the difference? Or both?
I vowed never to have a 26" FS ever again.

Can be quite a bit of extra bike weight associated with a FS set up sometimes.
I recently rode a mates 26fs round the Pentlands and thought the same

I was guiding yesterday and went on something with a 26" rear wheel. All day it felt as though I was 'held back' by something. I seemingly felt every stone, rut and ripple. Hills that usually don't really register required effort to get up. Arrived back after 45k and felt knackered.

I suspect that I'm used to 29" wheels and their benefits now (front and back)

I guess someone has to be the first......

I wasn't that convinced by my 29er HT. I rode the Fisher solely for about 5 months whilst my 26er Lynskey was repaired. For me, it felt different but not better. Even the notoriously flexy ride the Ferrous is renowned for didn't seem to offer any more comfort than the Lynskey. I tried various bar/stem/tyre/ss/geared options and it never really clicked.

Extra weight and a smaller main triangle that meant less storage were 2 important factors that niggled me.

However, I have since turned the Lynskey into a 69er with a set of carbon forks and absolutely love it. Noticeably better than when I ran it 26" rigid a few years ago that lasted only a few weeks before the sus forks were back on.

For me, the 29" thing just wasnt any better. Different, but not better.

i'm going through some issues with one at the moment.

it seems that whichever i ride (26er or 29er) i love the most!

on the whole i think that the 29er smooths out the trails and climbs better but i can ignore the grin factor that accompanies the chuck-about-ability of my 26er.

also, i think that a lot depends on the individual bikes people are riding.

if i had the wrong 29er or me but the perfect 26er then i'd likely prefer 26er but the opposite is also true.

luckily for me i've managed to get one of each that i love riding.

i've been out a couple of times recently on my fully-rigid 69er and whilst i enjoyed it there's definitely something 'missing' but as mentioned above i think it''s something to do with my 69er rather than 69ers on the whole.