Few things:

Hayes Stroker Ryde's lack in power. The 8" Ryde is not as powerful as my 6" Elixir. They do however modulate very well in comparison. Obvious trade-off, but it's a little too far past the sweet spot of good modulation / good power.

2.35" Nevegal as a front tire at 45-50psi isn't a terribly inspiring tire. It's okay on the rear, but I'd rather have an Excavator. Dropping it down to 38psi for singletrack is very nice, but running it urban at 50 isn't confidence inspiring.

Stock grips (non-lock-on) rotate when you try to hop or bring the bike up during a jump (rotating bars forward). When I changed out the bars, I put some Tioga lock-on grips in place. I'm not a big fan of these either b/c if they get too wet, the center of the grip between the locking rings wiggles around. The rings are connected to eachother via a plastic core. The grip is wrapped around the plastic core. The sides of the grip stay in place, but the squishy center portion will move a bit when wet. Probably get another set of Peaty's at some point.

Seatpost is slightly too short for a dude my size if you're going to do any XC trails widdit. I took it out to a technical climby trail out at Landahl...I ended up walking alot of it b/c of my lack of fitness this year, short seatpost, 7.5 extra pounds of bike, and less efficient design over my HT. That said...it's alot of fun on the trail as long as things are fairly level or pointing DH. This thing really screams on techy DH stuff. Really digging the 2:1 rear end.

New Syncros Bulk HiRise is still the PIMP!

These wheels are daggum tough! I half way expected to need a good afternoon with a spoke wrench after this week, but the rear wheel is straight as an arrow. The front wheel was slightly out of true when I got it...I trued it up a bit already and it hasn't moved. Very unexpectedly surprised and impressed.

When I'm on pavement and turn the handlebar one way or the other...the extra grip from the front tire causes this "Shiiiiiiiing" noise from the front rotor rubbing the pads. It's just a minor annoyance that I attribute to the Formula front hub possibly not being quite as tight of tolerance as the Hope Pro 2 that I'm used to. I have never heard this before on any of my bikes...not a deal breaker at all...but minor annoyance.

I would say so far...that this thing out of the box is impressing me. It's plush and comfortable with the new bars. If I were going to do more climbing with it, I'd get a 400mm Gravity Dropper and 175mm crankset for it. I can't say that it's in my near future though. The combo of shorter post and 170mm crankset makes it noticeably extra work when there's a slight uphill grade...but as soon as it levels out or points downhill...the thing just wants to take-off.