Last night I upgraded my stock 46t chain ring. I went with a 44t All-City Messenger ring. The difference was obvious upon opening the sleeve that the All-City came in. My stock SE Lager ring was thin and very cheap feeling, and had damage to almost every tooth.
Now I have the rock solid 44t Messenger ring on there and it's obviously easier to pedal (46t changed to 44t), but my question is this...

Would I have noticed my bike seem easier to pedal if I had replaced the stock 46t with an All-City 46t? In other words, I'm thinking maybe the fact that the stock ring was paper thin and soft may have meant that some of my effort pedalling was lost in the "flexing" of the ring. And so perhaps just upgrading to a solid ring of the same size would have produced a noticable improvement in efficiency?

Or not really?

Probably not.

Dude, you need your own forum.

Haha alright I'll shutup. Thanks.

If you are going to upgrade every part on this bike (frame), why not just buy a new complete bike. It will be much cheaper and you won't wind up with a box of old budget parts that you can't sell.

I didn't have $$$ for a nice bike. I barely had the $400 for this Lager. But I got it and started upgrading a little at a time. When I had some cash, I would upgrade whatever needed it most.
Your idea is way smarter but wasn't a possibility, since I wanted to have a bike to ride instead of saving up money until I had enough for the right bike.