This has undoubtedly been one of the most informitive threads I have read on this forum in quite a long time.
It's nice to see a budget bike get props, so when people with little money and no way of buying off craigslist, ebay, etc visit here they have more information than the average reply of "get a real bike" and all that other rubbish.
I don't have plans of ever purchasing a bike from Wal-Mart, or any other X-Mart for that matter, but I still read this thread every day.