Without question this is the greatest bike ever built.
Rotor Ring - I'm just going on faith that it works. Sorta like, I'm going to choose to believe it as a starting point. Walter's bike is roughly as light as mine, with tires that have better tread, and it's aluminum so it should climb better in theory. This bike climbs better, hands down. Some of that has to be the rotor ring, I think. It's hardly scientific but it's all I have.
17 Degree Sweep - Not too much at all. I don't even notice it. My only thought is that there still may be too much weight towards the back, as the front tire still drifts a hair at times. So a smaller sweep or longer stem is something to think about. Though yesterday at Waway it wasn't an issue. I need to get more TIS to say.
29er Thing - More than I could have expected.
Tires - More than enough tread for the Waway rocks yesterday. As I mentioned in another thread, I think tires are overrated. They're like QBs in football. When you win, you had great tires. When you lose, you had crappy tires. They were very fast rolling and were good yesterday.
Flex - This may sound crazy, but overall the bike goes downhill more like my full-suspension bike than Walter's hardtail 29er. Steel just seems to make that much of a difference.
Did I mention I like this bike?