Thanks for the ideas. The bike came fully set up by the bike builder, so I am 99.9% sure everything is positioned correctly. As for the front derailleur, I was supposed to get the whole gruppo, so I assume it's a compact derailleur, but I will check.

I think I'm going to have to sneak it to a mechanic. I often have to trim the left (front) twice!

BTW, trimming is when you 'click' the gear shifter and the chain does not move out of its position, but it is tweaked (I don't fully understand the mechanics of it) such that it quits making the noise that it was making. I'm sure DebW could give you a better definition.