very happy to report in with these findings....
at 2:04:12, the r09 rolled over into a new file.
the transition was seamless.
no problem playing back the 2:04:12 chunk. there was, however, a gap on playback when it flipped from file #1 to file #2. i was really surprised to find no gap when i merged the two files in sf8.
i never did a time trial of copying a 2g file to my desktop via the r09 connected in USB 2.0 with the previous firmware, but it completed the job in 7:54 under 1.10.
also, should anyone find the need, i was also able to successfully downgrade from 1.10 to 1.03. and then yes, take it back up to 1.10.
i think this is covered in the docs, but the upgrade process takes you back to default factory settings -- among which are recording at 16/44. make sure you take a moment to change it back to your favorite flavor before proceeding.
LMK if anyone wants to know more. i'll be glad to share flacs of the transition between two files, if anyone needs to hear what a seamless transition sounds like!