Originally Posted by
gutsofgold
sorry not seeing how this could solve my issue. there physically isn't enough chain to allow enough slack to get the wheel axels far enough into the drops.
ah, my B. I was assuming you had true track (rear facing) dropouts. I was thinking there was barely enough chain to allow the axle to clear the ends of the dropouts, but that the chain would be fine once the axle was actually in the dropouts. Thus, the chainring thing could be an easily overlooked solution. Despite the meager engineering challenge, I felt like DaVinci when I figured it out...
Half link. Unless you planned on changing gearing anyway, it's going to be the easiest, cheapest route.