Another vote for the gold Coomas. The gold/sintered compound seems to be where they put the actual R&D effort — consistent bite, predictable modulation, and they don't fall off a cliff when they get hot the way the pink ceramic ones do.

For the Goldix 11-39 crowd: those cassettes are heavy (as noted) but the steel cog carrier is one-piece machined rather than riveted, which matters if you're a heavier rider or carry loaded bags. Riveted spider cassettes from some brands have been known to develop play between the carrier and the cogs after extended gravel use. The Goldix won't win any weight competitions but it will stay quiet longer than you'd expect for the price.

the rough rule of thumb that's held up across a few wind tunnel tests: for a given rim, the aero benefit starts evaporating once your mounted tire measures more than ~105% of the rim's external width. So a 38mm external rim with a 40mm tire (105% match) will perform noticeably better than that same rim with a 45mm tire (118% — the airflow detaches at the tire-rim junction).

The common thread in almost every long-term success story here is that the frame was from a seller who's been around for at least a few years and has a track record of not disappearing when something goes wrong. The name on the down tube matters less than whether the factory has consistent process control. 

 best path: find a rigid carbon fork with a 460mm A-C and a tapered steerer (1-1/2 to 1-1/8). but any rigid 29er fork around that length will preserve the intended geometry. Once the fork is locked in, stem length and bar choice become fine-tuning rather than compensation.

 The 120mm link with a 45mm stroke shock runs a slightly higher average leverage ratio, means the same air spring pressure gives you a slightly softer mid-stroke, is it right???

SPCycle M-038, newer mold, 66.5° HTA / 75° STA, 120mm fork, 30. 9 seatpost (easy dropper), external or semi-internal cable routing (not through headset). About 1050g in medium.

One detail worth mentioning: YBN links are fractionally wider than the Shimano equivalent. you might get a light tick as the link passes through. Nothing that affects function, just something to listen for before you assume your indexing is off. The Connex link hubba mentioned avoids this entirely, but they cost about 4x what a YBN costs and for waxed chain rotation that adds up fast.

 :oCurious how the Tsunami CR01 rides compared to what you expected from the Trace Velo build. The geometry on those frames tends toward the endurance side of things, which works well for long days but can feel a touch lazy if you're used to tighter road handling.

Integrated aero seatposts can develop creaks from two places that people tend to overlook:
One is the wedge clamp itself. Some of these frames use a two-piece wedge system inside the seat tube, where the bolt pulls a lower wedge up against an upper wedge, expanding them outward to press against the tube wall. If those wedges are aluminum and the inside of the seat tube is raw carbon with no anti-seize, you'll get stick-slip between the metal and carbon that sounds exactly like a seatpost creak. Pull the wedge out, clean the contact surfaces, and apply a thin film of anti-seize (not carbon paste — opposite job here) between the wedge faces.

The second possibility is the carbon sleeve bonded inside the seat tube (the bore the seatpost actually slides into) has a small area of incomplete bonding. Under load, it flexes microscopically against the outer tube wall. That's harder to confirm without a borescope, but a telltale sign is that the noise changes with temperature and even worse on cold mornings when materials contract. If this is the case, it's a warranty conversation with the manufacturer.

spent an hour trying to figure out why my new brake bleed felt spongy no matter how many times I cycled the lever. Gave up, took it to a shop. Mechanic unscrewed the lever bleed port, looked at me, pointed at the yellow plastic bleed block still clamped between the pads, and said exactly nothing  ....

The key to this is understanding that chainring offset and chainline move in opposite directions — an offset ring pushes the chainring toward the frame.

Either they're genuinely curious and you end up talking for 20 minutes about how the supply chain actually works, or they give you that slightly puzzled "is it safe?" look and change the subject.

The 32er option is interesting . Curious to hear how it rolls once you've got it together. That wheel size seems to make the most sense for really chunky terrain...

It's a worst-case safety net, not a performance guide. Written to prevent tire blow-off under a heavy rider on a hookless rim at max pressure with tolerance stacking. If you know your rim and your tire's actual mounted width, you can make your own call. The rule of 105 was always a heuristic, not a law.