My Rocky is a 17" as for the ride its great but I've never ridden much else!
The great thing about this bike is, I've had it 7 years, and it's still as fashionable/unfashionable as the day bought it, which in these fad driven times is quite something!
Rocky has accompanied me on several Merida 100k events over the last few years. and whilst riding alongside the many Wow super bikes I make a point of asking myself.... 'Would I rather be riding that or this and my answer has always been 'this'. It also gets pleanty of complements which I always find pretty cool.
I'm planning to move up to an XTR driverain later this spring.