Well, ladies & gentlemen, it's almost done! (minus a set of panniers and racks... current Trek rack is just temporary)... I bought some wheels and bar end shifters for it, and my Tektro long-pull levers finally came in. Handlebars came off of a Specialized cross bike. Oh, and the tires will be Marathons at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Rides beautifully, and the bar-end shifters are made of gold-pressed awesome... VERY happy with how it turned out.
There are bolts on the seat stays to attach a rack, but if I do so it interferes with the cable routing of the V-brakes, so I put the Trek rack on so it could mount to the brake bridge instead. But this thing's flimsy... so to any other Nashbar owners who used V-brakes... what rear rack did you end up using?
EDIT: And for those of you who are keeping score at home...
Frame: $80.00
BB, 42/31/22 Chainrings & Cranks: FREE
Installation of the above: $40.00
Deore FD: $10
Alivio RD: FREE
Stem: FREE
Rear Rack: FREE
11-34 8sp Cassette: FREE
Tektro Mini-V Brakes: $20.00
Seatpost & Headset: $40.53
Headset Installation: $15.00
Wheels: $195
Tektro Levers: $28
Bar End Shifters: $85 shipped
Bar Tape: $10
Handlebars: $10 (bike swap meet)
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TOTAL SO FAR: $533.53