You just learned a valuable lesson. We all weren't saying it just because we like to type. I counted about 6 instances of replies above saying to detach the cable from the FD before making adjustments
It is impossible to truly learn, unless you work things out for yourself, and make your own mistakes
I could have done that from the beginning (and I would have, had I understood more) but then I would have never known how finicky the derailleur
really is.
The first real computer I built, I built it at my friend's shop. He had built numerous computers before. So I spent hours putting this thing together as carefully as possible, and as soon as I hit the power button, nothing. I called him over to ask him what might be the problem, and he said, "There could be a million problems. You should have just started with the major components first, turned it on, made sure things worked, and if they didn't, you would be left with less variables." I said, "John, why the hell didn't you tell me this to begin with?" And he said, "Because you would have never really known." And so I spent triple the time I had already spent tearing the computer down, building it up incrementally, etc.
So don't think all of your suggestions went to waste, I am very grateful for them
