Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I need opinions: would you bother to upgrade a really cheap, gas-pipe frame with quality components?

Let me explain where I'm coming from with this:



Now, even as an adult (the first mod I did was a longer seatpost) I really find this thing fun to ride: it's tossable, reasonably nimble, and handles well for what it is.

But although I couldn't detect any flex in the frame, this thing still rides cheap. It feels cheap. Even the noises it makes - the chain rubbing on the inside of the shroud, the saddle's springs creaking - sound cheap. There's little in the way of sophistication here.

I've already put a better rear rim with a better (but far from truly good) hub on it; I've been meaning to replace the 18T freewheel with a 16T or 15T to get some more speed out of it. But I've been thinking of putting some quality, brandname componentry on it: I wanted a better square-taper crankset to replace the one with pins on it, with a 48T chainring to replace the 46T, I wanted better BMX-style handlebars and stem, better brake levers, and a better saddle.

But that does sound like a lot of money to spend on what's basically a gas-pipe frame, as opposed to holding out for an actually better-quality bike like this one or even this one (which would be very expensive to buy and ship over.)

I'm also thinking it would be a good way to polish my rusty mechanical skills and learn new things that I didn't know in the 1980s and 1990s.

What do you think?