Lots of people explaining the new messiah of wheel sizes as playful.
WTF is a playful bike?

like a mad puppy, great round the park but not for an epic day out

My 26″ Five is playful, my FF29 isn’t. I know that, I can feel it, but it’s not so easy to put into words. Partly it is the ease with which you can turn and with which you can lift the front wheel, but it’s not just that. It’s a sort of neutral feeling to the balance. Going down hill on the Five the bike is moving about underneath me quite a bit, but always returning to a neutral position. If I want to change line, push the front into something, or lift it up then it’s easy enough to do. It just feels like it wants to play. The FF29 on the other hand feels very stable and stuck to the trail. I can still get it to move if I want to, but it doesn’t seem as keen.

No offence meant to anyone who uses it but I hate the “playful” label. Perhaps as it’s often tagged onto bikes that are far too small for the rider.

johnnystorm – Member
No offence meant to anyone who uses it but I hate the “playful” label. Perhaps as it’s often tagged onto bikes that are far too small for the rider.

It does often get used like that, but it can be something else too. Far too many lazy journos (and riders) about

Fair point. It’s certainly a lazy shorthand for something and in my case for something that I can’t even describe properly. But some bikes do just encourage you to push things and mess about more than others. It might all just be down to fit of course. I don’t know. But I recognise the feeling.