@snuffy76, beware of upgrade-itis. It is an infectious disease with some gruesome symptoms. Try not to catch it. If you want to dabble in upgrades, go for tires, which can make substantial differences.

Your bike is fine as it is, as long as it fits comfortably and rides the way you like it. Make changes as needed, and you'll know when you need something.

Bikes that are painted on top of chrome usually don't have nice, scratchless chrome under the paint. It usually doesn't pay to remove the paint from chrome, and you don't even know if there is chrome under your paint.

Weigh the wheels with the best scale you can get, and find out what weight wheels other people are riding for some perspective. Same with tires. But wheels are expensive and don't necessarily make a big difference. Tires are going to wear out, so you get to try new tires every so often. In fact, tires are so much fun (for me) to experiment with, durability is the least important criterion for choosing tires. I like them to ride well, most of all. Puncture resistance isn't even all that important, since I'm pretty handy at changing tubes, and I don't get many punctures any more.

It's not a high end bike, but it's no slouch, either. It's handsome, and it's in fantastic shape, and it's nicely made. The brakes might work well. We can't tell you, but you can tell us. If you don't think they stop well, buy Kool-Stop brake pads. There are no better pads, and they are inexpensive. We all love them. It's probably all you'll need to do with the brakes.

If you're curious about which tires to buy, start a new thread on tires. You'll get a huge variety of responses, some conflicting, and that's what makes things interesting. Tell us what criteria are important to you in tires.