29er Advice

Ok not my chosen specialist subject but I am looking to build a 29er.....

I have most parts to build now and just need to get a frame, My question is what size should I go for ? In a 26" world I generally ride an 18" , Would I need an 18" equivelant or would I need to go 16" as of the extra hike in wheel size :? If you have any experince on this field I would be very grateful

Also any thoughs on an on-one 29er swap our frame for my build ??

I wouldn't necessarily change frame size because of the 29er wheel size, FWIW I always go with top tube and stem length.

I recently built up my first 29er. I got the same top tube lenght as my 26er - mostly because that just happened to be what was going cheap(ish) on ebay. I found the 29er steering feels much better with a shorter stem than on my 26er and consequently my seat to bar lenght has ended up shorter. I run a 110mm stem on the 26er and flit between a 90 and 70 on the 29er.

I put a layback post on to lengthen it but im not convinced by the change in saddle-pedal alignment and weight distribution. To sum up, draggy climbs seem a little harder with the layback on plus the bike still feels shorter even though it measures the same length with the 90mm stem.

I am running it with the max fork length it can handle -120mm and it steers best with the 70mm stem, 90mm being a little bit 'floppy'. I am going to try it with 100mm forks and the 90mm stem to see what happens, but if I was splashing out new I'd probably get the next size up.

Thanks guys very helpful info