how is this germane, relevant to the OP's question ("...practically speaking, how does the ride compare to the 16" Downtube bikes?")?

i am surprised you didn't mention, as you are wont to do throught the whole forum, apropos nothing, your German-made Schmoloff hub.

We all hate name-droppers. I hate place-of-manufacture-droppers. Not only because it is gauche, but also because it is an increasingly anachronist, ethnocentric bias that distorts the market for information. So what if it is made in Asia? That tell us very little. It could be craptacular, spectacular or sonewhere in the middle.