I was a bit wary about getting one of these after hearing about the rear stay issue. I found out that the problem was with 2013 batch 1 models, so fears quashed.
All I can say is wow, fantastic ride. It really does corner like its on rails. I think due to the very short rear stay, unusual for 29ers. It is as nimble as my 26 stumpjumper, but carries speed like nothing else.
I rode it over my regular trails today, which contain quite severe xc trails in a dh area (bringwood), so quite a good test for the bike. I can see no disadvantages to it at the moment.
One small nitpick with the bike however, the elixir 3’s it came with are pretty poor. My first upgrade I reckon.
As a result of todays ride, my blue pig is up for sale, with reverb, see the classifieds 🙂