Another update, sadly without putting many more miles on the bike. Work and chores have gotten in the way.

Seraph was quick to send a replacement shock trunnion bolt. It came with a spare pivot bolt as well. Not bad for US$10 plus state sales tax shipped.

I've ordered the parts for the 29" wheels. I went with Koozer 490 Pro hubs (steel axle in the rear hub) and Dairsbike 34mm internal width rims. The hubs are here, the rims haven't shipped yet. I also ordered another 11-50 11 speed cassette from ZTTO, along with 203mm and 180mm brake rotors, just so I can swap wheelsets without hassle.

Another concern: The binder bolt holding the shock to the rocker arm doesn't reach all the way through. It measures about 7mm too short. This explains the funky wear pattern on the bolt - it's bending under load. Worse, the Allen bolt that threads into it is only 10mm long, so that means there were only about 3mm of thread holding everything together.

I ordered 68mm replacements from Delt. That's a little long, but better too long than too short. The bolt should go completely through the assembly. I'll need to put a washer under one end, fortunately washers are cheap.

So far that means the rear through-axle and the shock-to-rocker-arm bolt supplied by Seraph were inadequate. The thru-axle wasn't part of the frame deal, but the shock bolt was. I wonder what will be the next issue to come up?

I haven't done a lot of MTBing this summer, unfortunately, so I don't have much in the way of updates. The last time I rode the FM10 was in late June!

The seatpost creak was due to the post bottoming out in the seat tube. I raised the post a couple mm, and now the creak is gone. I'm really happy with the OneUp dropper post so far.

The trunnion bolt I cross-threaded won't come up to full torque now. Entirely my fault that it got cross-threaded. I posted a message to Seraph on Aliexpress late this afternoon (California time), got a quick reply (as in minutes!), and I have ordered a replacement. I don't feel safe riding the bike in this condition, so I'll dust off the old 26er for the next couple of rides, until the new bolt shows up.

While I was fooling around with the shock, I noticed it wouldn't pivot very far on the trunnion bearings. The problem was excess resin on the inside of the trunnion mount. I used a file to grind it down, and the shock now has a pretty good range of motion, though still stiffer than I'd like.

I'll put together a set of 29" wheels this winter, after I pay off some bills.

@Caseven, how do you like the Manitou Mara? I've got one on a TanTan FM10, still getting it dialed in.

Confirmed, the MRP Race axle, 172mm long, 1.5mm thread pitch, is a perfect fit in the FM10. It doesn't bottom out when torqued to spec (10 n-m).

Looking forward to taking this bad boy for another ride tomorrow or the next day.

I got the ZTTO ZS44/56, it's the correct size for this frame. I thought the quality was decent when I installed it. I only have 2 rides on the bike, so it's too soon to tell how it holds up.

I need to replace the rear thru-axle before I'll ride it again. On the 2nd ride last weekend, I did a few small jumps, and heard a small 'crack' when I landed one of them. I suspected the rear thru axle. When I got home and got the axle out, it was intact. But when I went to put it back in, it wouldn't take full torque. The head kept turning, but I checked the other end and it wasn't turning. It couldn't turn, because the threads had bottomed out.

The factory axle appears to be carbon composite. I was concerned that it wouldn't hold up (I'm about 220 lb/100kg), so I ordered a 175mm aluminum axle from another AliExpress vendor, along with some spacers to dial in the exact length. This was before I discovered the bottoming issue. I won't ride the bike again until I get the new axle in.

If you're buying an FM10, do NOT buy the factory rear axle.

The original rear thru axle is 12mm diameter by 173mm long, with a 1.5mm thread pitch and 15mm long threads. Clearly 173mm is too long if it bottomed out. 171-172mm should be ideal. It works out that 171mm w/ 1.5mm thread pitch is a Shimano E-Thru standard - for a 142mm hub - so there should be no shortage of options on the market.

The threads it screws into are about 14.5mm deep, so the axle should have at least 15mm of thread length to be safe. Unfortunately that means the Wolf Tooth 172mm thru axle, with 13mm of thread, won't work. [edit] It looks like the MRP Race axle will work - they don't have the thread length on their site, but a close look at a product picture shows more than 10 threads. I just ordered one.

I still have to go looking for the source of that 'crack' when I landed the jump. I haven't done a close inspection of the frame yet. Maybe later today.

The other issue I had on that ride was that the Goldix freehub slipped noticeably on a couple of occasions. I took it apart, and cleaned up the star ratchet to look for signs of damage. I didn't see anything obvious. It might just be that the too-long axle left a gap just big enough to allow the ratchet to slip. That's another reason I'm looking forward to putting in a correctly sized axle.

I finally set up the cockpit yesterday. It was no surprise that I had to shim the OneUp dropper post. The FM10 design has a shallow seat tube, and at the full 150mm extension, the saddle was just a tad too high. But I picked the OneUp because it had the shortest insertion depth at 150mm, and because they claimed you could adjust the travel in a couple of minutes without tools. They weren't lying. I only needed to shorten it by 10mm - one set of shims - so I still have plenty of room to drop the saddle in the rough stuff. I set up the handlebar angle and the controls much like my old bike.

I was a little disappointed to see that the saddle-to-bar distance was actually shorter than my old bike. I had a bike fit done last summer, and the fitter thought the bar was too close on the old bike. OTOH, the old bike was designed around a 100mm stem. The new bike has a 70mm stem at present, which I thought would be too long. The grips on the 16° SQLabs 30X bar are in line with the steerer. I might try moving the saddle back on its rails.

It's a gorgeous day here in Silicon Valley today, so I took the new bike to a popular local preserve for a shakedown ride. And had a blast!

Only a couple of minor issues came up during the shakedown ride. The seatpost creaks pretty badly in the frame. The headset developed a little bit of play, no surprise, and no big deal. Some of the helicopter tape I put on the chainstay had come loose and was buzzing against the tire. And (oops) I put the rear tire on backwards. I wish I could blame the bike for my (lack of) fitness, but I didn't really notice the weight of the fatter tires.

The ZTTO 11 speed cassette, Sensah CRX shifter and derailleur, and low-end SRAM 12-speed chain combination worked great. I had no issues with shifting. We'll see how that changes as it wears. No issues today with the Goldix rear hub either, thankfully. I'm still leery after the rotor bolt threads stripped in the front hub, and after all the reports of Chinese star ratchets breaking down much sooner than expected. The 16° bar seems to suit my hands. The Ergon saddle seems kind of firm, but then I haven't done much riding lately, and I know I won't notice it after a few weeks.

Overall it rides a lot like my 2007 vintage 26er. This is both good (no major adjustments to riding style) and bad (expecting the spouse to say "You spent $$$$ for a bike that rides just like the old one?!)"  It did seem a little easier to control on downhills.

I'll want to go over everything with a fine toothed comb before taking it for another ride.  And I'll cut down the steerer tube by about 20mm. I'd left it long just in case, but the Cane Creek Helm II fork seems to work fine.

I may build a set of 29" wheels and trade off to see if the extra width of the 27.5" tires makes up for the lower bottom bracket. The trails I rode today had been groomed recently, so there wasn't a lot of rough stuff to provoke pedal strikes.

Pictures attached as promised. I went with a stealth matte black theme because I'm lazy, and I suck at painting. (I was the kid who always had glue thumbprints on any model kit I built.)

I have a thread about my FM10 build in progress in the 29er section. On the whole it seems reasonably well made, especially for the price.

But Seraph/TanTan is notorious for really sloooooow shipping. My frame took almost 3 months to arrive.