I've got the orange 08 26" dob and love it to death. It does flex a lot in the rear end, I've got the lighter echo 4 bolt booster, and it does the job, but there's also downward flex in the frame that you really feel when doing drops. Riding this bike has made me a much better rider. I came from riding an echo control short. All the things that the echo needed improvement on are offered in the dob I think...way better rear wheel stability, ups are so much easier because of the weight, slightly longer, lower frame, and it spins like crazy! I'm extremely happy with mine. I highly recommend them... Not sure about the rims yet. They're relatively sturdy, the rear might fall out of true by about 3 mm once every two rides, but it's easy to fix...I'm not fond of the grind though, dulls off quick. I'm running a mediumish grind with tar, and it works well. Haven't had any problems with the front dob rim yet, still 100% true, no dents, spokes are still tight...good front rim Oh, and they build a sickly light bike! lol I've been filming the last few days, so I might put some clips together of riding the dob I run a ZHI 120*20 stem on mine and it fits well, an echo 130*15 would work as well, but the front end might feel a bit low.