Many years ago I took a test ride on a folding bike that had tiny little wheels like the Tikit. The acceleration was fantastic, due entirely to the small wheels. Kinetic energy of rotation is proportional to the square of the radius of the wheels, so small diameter wheels (even if the mass were the same) take far less energy to spin up.

Since the bike was built to be a commuter bike and not a racing bike, there were too many performance compromises to be a good racer. That's not to say it wasn't an excellent commuter. Just like a folding bike makes a poor racer, my racing bike makes a poor commuter, even though superficially it is equipped (lights, mirror, tools, etc.) to do so.

tanstaafl.