Glad it worked out for you. For the average person I will continue to dissuade these **** bikes. That doesn't mean they can't be made to work, but it often means for a very small sum more, many can be made to work better.
It's mostly the hidden costs that make these bikes less of a deal to the average consumer who doesn't know adjusting a headset from truing a wheel. it's going to cost the average person seventy five dollars or more to get these things actually assembled properly by a bike shop, that wipes out most of the savings. Or they can just ride it not assembled properly, which might seem like more savings at first, but quickly find out the opposite when the bearings fail in a few months. You were already over the cost of a $320 giant escape three, which has an actual aluminum frame worth riding, lifetime warranty on frame, year warranty on parts, it had been assembled properly, and usually comes with at least six months of free adjustments from the shop... Was the $120 you saved on initial purchase ACTUALLY saving anything at all half a year later? For most, the answer is no.
My main gripe with these bikes is that they build them even ****tier for the sake of marketing. They "shape" the aluminum tubing in ways that make no sense and serve no purpose because that's what the big brands do, they could have used round tubing and probably saved you even more cents. Except when a big brand has shaped tubing, that's trickle down technology from their high end stuff and might actually serve some purpose.building a bike isn't rocket science, yet somehow they are able to make bikes more inferior than they were twenty years ago, all to catch the eye of people who don't know better.