I loved it, but I should have said WAS..... the frame cracked and that turned into a nightmare all its own, so I moved all the stuff off it onto a Niner EMD frame. I still have a Paragon 29r which I find the geometry is very similar on. The point being my Paragon is also a 17.5. I did not flip the stem, but I put a longer stem with 0 deg rise ( on both ) and like them very well.