Originally Posted by
spectastic
so is there a lineup of components that differ in quality, just like with road bikes (shimano, sram, campy)? when it comes to reliability, are you talking about components that actually have brand names, as opposed to just generic bicycle parts in the specs? I'm not doing any tricks with it, just general commuting, and maybe even use the fixie hub. I thought about longer commutes to work (eg 22-27 miles).. it's flat terrain, so I might do that.
Not really. It comes down to budget, usually. Like I said before that you would probably be fine riding a bike like that as-is for a while and then start upgrading components as you're able and as your needs require it. A quick Google search turns up lots of results though. Just do a search for "best crankset for $$$" and you'll get tons of results.
There are a lot of people on there that post threads like, "Help me build a bike for under $700" or whatever. It really just comes down to what kind of money you can/are willing to put into a bike. But as with most things in life, you get what you pay for.