Didn't get as many miles yesterday as I had hoped. I had to go to work for a few hours Sunday morning, which did get me 6.2mi commuting. Saturday afternoon before going to a wedding reception I squeezed my road bike rear tire out of habit and noticed it was squishy. Also the new chain I had put on was still skipping in the small ring.
After getting back from work I immediately went to work on fixing the road bike. After removing two more links and checking if it shifts into gears I noticed that I can't shift into the largest cog while in the big ring, too much tension. So I painstakingly remove the chain again, put another link in and try it again. This time I notice something funny about my rear derailleur, there are grooves in the tab by the jockey wheel. I suddenly realize with horror what the sound I heard yesterday on my 23mi ride. Having been the first time I've replaced a chain on this style of derailleur I didn't realize that I had strung the chain on the wrong side of the tab. It had rubbed approximately 337,000 links. After adding one link back from the two I removed the tension was still too high, but better. Realizing now that the reason it was skipping may have been due to the chain being strung wrong I put the last link back in and now everything shifts well.
I took the bike out for a short ride, thought about my options and decided on a road that was pretty close and had a good 6-8% grade on it. Got over to the uphill spot, braked to a really low speed, then shifted into the small ring and put as much power into it as I could, no skipping. Got up a ways and found a spot to turn around, and since this was a bowl shaped hill I got to try it again, with this section being steeper I was in the small ring, largest cog, and everything was fine, to my relief.
I'm pretty sure that the damage to the tab won't affect anything, since generally speaking the tab shouldn't be touched anyway and the damage is on the wrong side of it. As for the chain, well, time will tell I guess. Each link hit about 3,300 times, and I did remove and add back on two links which have the special factory set pins, and I removed the pin on the same link at least 4 times. This is a lesson that only needs to be learned once though, and I learned it. Sharing with everyone else so you don't make the same mistake.