Thank you for the responses and great advice! I will check out those links. After a little bit more testing I found that in the highest gear the bike hardly slips at all which is perfect for me since I really only keep it in the maximum gear all the time. My town isn't that hilly and I don't mind the quad work out.

I uploaded some photos. Here is the link to my photobucket. http://s169.beta.photobucket.com/use...izzle/library/


After a little inspection I noticed that the front and rear brake pads are very worn out, this explains some of the braking issues that I've had. The chain is also somewhat rusty so I will get some WD-40 later this week and try to work it in there. Should I also WD-40 the freewheel? Should I apply some sort of chain oil afterward? (one that doesn't pick up dirt, I've read that some do that.) Any recommendations? The wheels seem like they are in pretty good condition. When I was testing the shifters it seemed like they responded relatively well.

I haven't used my car in three days which is really great! The money I'm going to save I will put toward slowly upgrading the bike. I think as far as a plan of action for the short term I will:

Look for/replace the brake pads.
Remove rust/re oil the chain and freewheel.

Also another question, would replacing the wheels at some point with newer, lighter ones increase the quality of my ride?

Thank you again.