Engineering design is full of engineering compromises as you want properties from a product that are in contradiction to each other. You want something that is light, but strong, powerful yet economical, aerodynamic yet roomy. There is no such thing as a perfect design. If you could invent a wheel that changes diameter then that would be perfect, but you can’t so you select the wheel size that best suits what you want to do with it – if you’re a downhiller and want long travel suspension, then 26″ is what you want, if you’re a wheels on the ground cross country mile muncher, then 29er is what you want, if you’re indecisive and just want to try to cover all bases then 650B is for you 😉
The extra inertia of a 29 inch wheel though calculable is irrelevant in the real world. especially when you factor in that you don’t have to accelerate the wheel as much to get the same forward acceleration and you don’t have to accelerate the wheel as long to get the speed you want. It cancels itself out. So forget inertia in the 26 vs 29 inch debate – its irrelevant.