Well no, this friend is not heavy. He has lost a ton of weight and is in good shape. He just wants a bike to go around town on.

Well I and one of the guys at the bike coop fixed up this mongoose as best as we could. I replaced all the cables with new cables. Replaced the brake levers. The guy who was helping me did more than I even thought of doing. He even took the rear wheel off and trued it up. Once we got it back together, everything seemed to function as expected. Man I think those grip shifters are really substandard but they did work just fine after the cables were replaced.

The brakes work much better but they still sorely lack the firm grip and grab of my Specialized.

The shop head guy even took the bike for a spin and said it was fine and everything worked.

I fully understand what it means with the difference between the big box store junk and a decent low end LBS bike.