Great job!! I would concur with most of your points. I have the 7200FX (now a 7.2FX) and my initial 255 lbs on the stock saddle was brutal. I rode the my first 50 miler with a wide 11 inch seat that proved to be too soft. Those last 10 miles I could feel my butt glowing red with pain arrows shooting out. The son in law contends you just have to ride to get use to seat. There's some truth to that. I took the route of trying different seats. Actually 22 different seats. Padded shorts will help, losing weight will help. I also employ the unusual move of actually stopping and getting off bike about every 10 -12 miles. Walk around, drink some water. If your riding on paved road, you could try and find some road rims and install them with narrower tyres. And not too expensive to replace front fork with a steel one.
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BierHaus Bertolette Road Bike, built 2007
BierHaus SRT Trail Bike, built 2010
Fuji Mt. Pro - 2007