I've read of similar problems with RIA 1911s that were not full sized (mostly from 1911forum).
Happily, the full sized RIA I bought last Saturday has worked exceptionally well so far. It has actually alleviated my apprehension about owning another 1911 due to two other poor performances in the past early on in my gun collection addiction. (Both IAI/AMT longslides.)
Only problems I've seen so far (from 100 rounds) was hammerbite, shooting slightly to the left (since corrected by drifting the rear), and the very heavy, strong spring of the Novak's mag causing the top round (when fully loaded to 8 rounds - 2 out of 3 occassions) to nosedive into the frame (FTF). When loaded less than full, mag worked fine. Will have to load full and let sit for a few days to loosen it up. Oh, also, have to do something about that ~7.5 lbm trigger. Otherwise, worked fine. Thinking of buying another as this one is for my dad. As cheap as it is, I think it would be a great platform to try out a few things internally myself instead of sending it out to get worked on.