The point is this: you are, quite frankly, polishing a turd. These kinds of bikes are built from the ground up as landfill fodder. They are neither durable, nor is repairing them in many cases fiscally prudent. Craigslist can be a gold mine when it comes to finding bikes of good quality that just need a little love, and then you have a decent transportation/fun device!

And katherineevans, did it ever occur to you that if we were really snobs, no one would have bothered to answer you? Get that chip off your shoulder and listen. There's a wealth of knowledge here. You are not the first person to try this! Many of us started in the same place, thinking a bike is a bike is a bike.....but they aren't, and we are just trying to keep you from making the same mistakes we have already made.