Problem #1 solved:



Problem #2 is the seat post. It is now drying with its second coat of clear poly. Going to do that and the carbon grip. And now for another stupid question - clamp positioning shown below is correct, no?

Thanks a lot.  I thought about using a Missing Link, but wasn't sure it would work (novice here).  I'll grab one (or a few) of those on my way home.

First, I'll answer questions. My reference to little/little was when the bike was in the stand and I was getting everything adjusted. I don't have Shadow+, so no lever to adjust.

Took a look at the driveline and found the culprit:




Yup, that'll do it. Pin was falling out. Off to the LBS for a new pin, but I have a question:

I was reading my Zinn book and it referenced that Shimano chains have an outside and inside, with the logo going on the outside. True? Mine was on backwards.

Was finally able to make it out on the Chiner this morning. About 34 degrees out, and we had a big thaw over the eek end but everything was frozen pretty well. I just cruised around my local spots - we have a lot of hiking and multi-use trails.

The good - everything worked really well. Brakes seemed to have a lot of lever travel before engaging but they clamped hard once engaged. Sizing was good, and I'm having third thoughts about my stem length. No burps from the one (yeah, one) tire I have tubeless and that was at about 10 psi.

The bad - this @$!# carbon seat post will not stay clamped!! Even with carbon grip, and with me cranking as much as I'd like to, it turned into a dropper about a third of the way on my trip. I felt like a 13 year old on a BMX bike with my knees hitting my chest. I also had one instance where the chain dropped to the inside - I was able to catch it in time before it caused any damage. It's weird too, because I was on the big ring at the time.

I wasn't going after major weight loss here - if I had been it would have been a 1x setup and a carbon bar, and I would have been more dilligent on the quest for tubeless.  I wasn't keeping track of every gram here and there...  I'll just say it's muuuuuuuch better than my 36 pound fatbike

Congrats on the first ride!  Bike looks great.  A few followup items:

1) Check out MMBA.org - huge forum with constantly updated trail conditions.  Don't worry too much about riding in the mud.  Personally, I don't do it just because of the cleaning PITA.

2)  Fork travel - does your fork have a rubber o-ring on one of the damper rods?  It serves exactly the same purpose as your zip tie.

Yup, AFAIK, I did everything right. Did the shake, rattle, and roll, little over two ounces. Not sure if any of the Stan's dried up around the bead and that's what's causing the leaking.

Ahhhh, progress is good. Bottom bracket, crank installed. Derailleurs hooked up. Was finally able to cobble together the barb and olive nut and hooked up the rear brake and it seems pretty solid, but I have a bleed kit and extra olive nuts on the way.

Buuuut, rear tire won't hold air. Leaking through the spokes, so that means my Stan's is probably under the Gorilla tape. Going to have to pop the tire off, clean it all off and try again. Not looking forward to that mess.