In case anyone stumbles upon this thread and wants to know the ending, I've resigned myself to riding my wife's '08 Schwinn Ridge AL. Though it looks like a MTB, I'm pretty sure it was only meant for bike paths. I bent the fork on the trail pretty badly, and replaced it with a simple cheap spring fork from eBay for $40 shipped. Since then it's been holding up just fine. My prediction is that the wheels will go next, we'll see. I've actually gotten several compliments on it from friends, but even so, it's the sorta bike I'd be ashamed of around knowledgeable riders. I console myself with the thought that it's a good way to improve my riding skills and work my way up until I'm ready for a "real" bike.
I just couldn't convince the wife to let me buy another bike when we already had one she felt we spent too much on anyway, which brings me to this advice:
To anyone looking for a cheap bike, I was always turned off by the "elitist" feeling I got from my LBS and dedicated bike people in general, not wanting to believe that an inexpensive xmart bike was really that bad. Well, unfortunately, they were right, and I've learned my lesson. A bike really is a magnificent peice of engineering, and you pay for that sofistication. I spent $230 for my wife's bike new, which I felt was high to begin with. Though I bought it somewhere other thant the bike shop, to save money, I ended up having to spend another $40 there to get it tuned up anyway. And then, I spent $40 to replace the fork. So, all in, I've got in the neighborhood of $310 sunk into this bike, and who knows what else is going to break. I probably could have spent that same money on a closeout at the LBS and ended up with something at least as good, not to mention getting the tune up for free. If I'd spent that same money on a bike from Craigslist, I could have gotten something far superior, or spent a fraction for something equivelant. I wish I'd known about CL at the time.