BTW does any one have pics of their front detailer cable.  to make sure I am doing it rigth... I dont thing I am.

FD? I hate them. I hate them with a passion.

BTW the correct routing depends if you use mechanical or electronic shifting. For mechanical, use the hole down there at the backside of your seat tube. For electronic use the hole on the drive side of the seat tube below the FD mount (the one I have covered with rubber cover in the picture).

Aaaand the best is SRAM electronic. No holes, no cables, no problem.

I did, they have all sizes in stock is what they told me

That's kinda new. Few months ago some sizes were already unavailable and they declared the frame is in close-out sale.

I use Hutchinson Challenger 700Cx28.

Which frame would you recommend for durability and longevity?

Honestly? None. They are all carbon frames. If you seek durability and longevity, you want to ride 15k a year for many years and I guess you preffer lower weight (as you look at carbon frames), go titanium.

lol it was meant to simply show a gap between the top of the stem (handlebars in the 218 case) and the steerer tube.
Yep I would sand down the crap top cap or run the carbon one. Did you try assembling per my steps?

I will try the advice of increasing the gap by one 5mm spacer and see how it goes. Also I can't really follow your steps exactly as I would need to disconnect the front hydraulic hose to remove the fork from the headtube but I guess it's fine installing and fully tightening the plug after fork and spacers are already installed.

But I will definitely try to tighten the top cap before clamping the stem although I guess it doesn't really matter. I will also try to apply some carbon paste on the plug to make sure that thing doesn't move up inside of the steerer when tightening the top cap.

EDIT: OK I tried to add the spacer and it indeed helped. No more headset play. Allright, time to shorten the steerer. Wanted to shorten it anyway to remove all the spacers. I was too much conservative with them. I noticed with 3,5 cm spacers my handlebar is almost 5 cm higher than my current bike. Without them it will also look much better. Thanks everyone for help, especially those that told me my steerer might be too long.

Already ordered 2 more caps with screws they declare to fit 100%. Let's see...

I think people sometimes use plumber's tape (teflon) for loose bearings, electrical tape sounds ghettoer / maybe too flexy?
Btw, if your bearing really is swimming in its hole, then post a video, you may get a new frame. Some play might be acceptable, but if they botched it, they botched it.
It's safe to try the bike with a little play. Don't over do it, dont take it offroad, dont go down a mountain pass, be sensible.

I wouldn't say the bearing was swimming but without the tape it was loose enough to drop from the frame in Earth's gravitational field... The play was corrected by just one layer of that very thin electrical tape...
Already ordered PTFE tape but to apply it I will need to remove the fork from the frame, thus disconnecting the hydraulic hose from the left lever and possibly need to buy a new olive. I use SRAM brakes and levers.

Bike almost finished, but I have issues with a headset play. Any recommendations on what I should do to fix this, as I am not really familiar with headset shenanigans. Some background:
- I've already replaced the original short compression plug with an extra long version (80 mm, not that I expected it will help, I did it mostly for other reasons).
- Also already tightened the plug to max recommended torque for this frame (6 Nm). The integrated handlebar with carbon paste applied tightened with the grub screws to around 3,5 Nm fits firmly already but I guess that's not relevant for a headset play issue?
- The cap on top of the stem I tightened with low torque (around 2,5 Nm) as I believe that's just for the cap to not move and it's not important for the headset itself or am I wrong? (The manual for Dogma says to preload to 2 Nm and then 6 Nm max, but I seriously don't understand why, as the cap is installed as a last part to just cover the stem, so why even preload it? I think the expander plug has to be preloaded before installing the stem or am I wrong again?
- My uneducated guess is the headset play may have something to do with the fact the bottom bearing didn't fit the headtube firmly and there is some play because the headtube seems to be a little wider than it should at the lower part. The upper bearing fits firmly. Top and bottom bearings on this frame are interchangeable and when I swapped them then again bottom bearing is loose and top fits firmly. This means that bearings should be both fine and correct diameter.
- To make the bottom bearing fit firmly too I wrapped it with electrical tape to increase its diameter slightly. This helped with the play during installation but maybe it's not enough after it. Again, I don't really understand how this thing even holds together and why the fork doesn't fall down from the frame...

So what do you guys think? Should I apply glue on the outer side of the bottom bearing like Loctite 638 or should I do something completely different first? And is it safe to ride with a headset play, at least for some shorter test ride or should I resist the temptation to try my new bike?