Re: the shocks, you need bushes/reducers to space your shock out to 28-29mm.
Sam, the fox DHX5 measures 12.9mm at one end and 12.75mm at the other on my hobbyking vernier calipers of precision excellence. So you need 2x 8mm bushes.
I suspect this is a pretty common size in the mtb world as the giant downhill comp I'm using for donor parts has a manitou 220mm shock with spacers the perfect size to drop straight in. Needless to say, guess which shock I ended up fitting
Re: sanding the inside of the shock mount holes, yes mine was fairly tight too but not so much that I needed to sand. I guess it's just the slightest little bit of powdercoat in the hole and it's better to have a nice tight tolerance like this rather than holes that are too big and have slop. I will speak to the flux crew though and see if they can clean them up a bit after they come back from the coaters. I just poked the end of the bolt in and screwed it in as if I was tightening it into a nut and it easily 'tapped' it's way through.
Other initial thoughts: These are a pretty tall bike. I haven't fitted the BB yet but with a 26" wheel set and 220mm shock in its lowest position and seat all the way down I can't flat foot the bike (I'm 5'8) I can flat foot if I slip down onto the 'dip' in the frame but as it is this is too tall for me for the sort of offroading I like to do so I will have to experiment with the lower shock settings.
Re: stems, I prefer them as short and stubby as possible, both for handling and aesthetics. Alot of triple clamp forks run direct mount stems so I try to get as close to this as possible (on this build I AM using a direct mount stem, but these aren't available for the DNMs that I normally use)
Rix, not sure what motor and controller combo I'll be running yet. Pictured is a H40 in 26" wheel just thrown on for size. I will certainly be putting together multiple configs to go with these ranging from H40s (or even smaller for those observing CDnomics) up to cromotors. The H40 running ~5kw (ala my hadron kit) would make a sweet power:weight package with around a 15ah battery, or the mxus or crown pushing more. I'm leaning towards setting up my own personal Flux with an adaptto maxi and crown or MXUS3k and approximately a 20ah battery. Big power when you want it, mid range weight so it's manageable to lift over things but also enough range to go on long rides too. The other 2 bikes to round out my stable will be:
* A lighter weight single track machine with smaller battery, single crown forks and geared motor - basically an updated version of my blue timma cut and shut specialized fsr (very similar to Keplers fighter, even down to the colour, though completely unintentional!)
* A heavy duty brawler - basically an edirt bike - raptor with 35ah battery, moto rims front and rear and a cro running 12kw.
If I could only pick one bike it would be the flux in the above config but I've already got the others and, well, a pimp has to have a stable of hoes
Rod I think running the max e is overkill for a H40, the mini would deliver as much power as it'll comfortably take. But I know you've already go the max and with temp monitoring they'll take more it in short bursts. We saw the smoke show that resulted from me shoving that sort of power into one for 5 minutes fairly continuously with no temp sensor