veganbikes

I never had any issues with my crank and I don't know if crank length really matters a huge ton. Maybe it does but so far it hasn't horribly affected me, all my bikes are generally well positioned but have different crank lengths. Certainly go with what is comfortable to you but I never had issues.

Stock saddles aren't meant to be the best thing they are meant to be something that could be decent for some but likely are something you will replace. My replacement was another WTB saddle that a friend gave me and then my favorite a Brooks Cambium C17 Carved. Bikes with really fancy saddles that aren't made by the company that made the bike are usually not worth the time of day. Unless that happens to be your saddle that your butt likes.

The brake levers suck, functionally they are just fine but the feel is sucky. Similar to my old DA 7400 levers but not quite as nice. However there are some great options on the market if I was keeping bar end shifters I would go SRAM S500 all day every day. One my new touring bike which replaced my DT I had to get rid of those because my homemade Gevenalle style shifters using those levers didn't work, but the Gevenalle do work, quite well. The hand position is a little better but not as ergo as the SRAM S500S but I can live with that. They are a Tektro lever but not the pointed one something probably more like the Cane Creek levers.

I didn't have any issue with the positioning but the mechanic who built my DT was excellent and really did a top notch job in everything he did. The person who built yours might have liked a different position or didn't realize it or something. I don't think the bikes out of box come pretaped but I could be wrong. It has been so long since my DT. If it was a relatively easy fix I wouldn't worry about it as long as everything was functional.

I sadly cannot speak about the cable routing because I honestly cannot remember the routing of my cables ever being an issue. I did one catch a cable on a bottle cage install on a friends bike and couldn't for the life of me figure out why it was shifting so poorly.

All in all I liked my DT but I did upgrade some stuff over time which led me to the Co-Motion Cascadia which at the time was a great choice and I still love love love it but wish I had a different mindset at the beginning because now I am realizing there are things I want that I didn't think I would want at the time. Some of that stuff I am upgrading too but some of it I cannot really change easily or practically.