Motorcycle wheel sizes and handling?

[ZK-Awesome]

Can someone explain in what way different wheel sizes affect a bike's handling? At my current stage of riding I don't notice a difference but as I progress it might become more apparent.

Either large ones or small ones make the steering quicker, can't remember which though :msn-wink:

Also smaller wheels would cause greater tyre wear?

[Slyer]

If you have ridden a scooter you will know why small wheels are baaad.
Bigger wheels are more stable but also heavier and slower to tip in.

[HenryDorsetCase]

larger wheels will have more gyroscopic effect, and theoretically be slow to turn in whereas smaller have less and lighter. But honestly given the myriad other variables around steering and motorcycle dynamics, you could have a slow steering small wheeled bike and a quick steering big wheel bike...

I noticed it the most when riding a couple of my pushbikes. One has standard road wheels (700C ` 28 inches diameter) and the other is a Brompton folder with 16 inch wheels. Trying to ride the brompton no hands is really difficult because the steering is uber twitchy, and the big pie plate road wheels impart a gyro stability it is easy to feel. The big wheeler started life as a track bike so it has very quick geometry.