I've been riding one for about three and a half years now and second what everyone else says. It's perfectly adequate, and reasonably priced. I had the same problems with the spokes and the wheel-build, but my LBS at the time re-built it (for free) and it worked well perfectly well until it was destroyed about a year ago through no fault of its own. Regardless, it's a good bike for the price, and you shouldn't be too worried about the components, especially if the wheels have recently been upgraded.