Originally Posted by pirate golf
Also, I'd like to change out the stem (I think that's what it's called... sorry I'm a newb) to something that will set the handle bars a bit lower. I want to be able to lean forward a bit more.
You can save money by just lowering your stock bar. See attacted photo. Red arrow points to the adjuster bolt for the stem,this will raise/lower the bar height. Orange arrow points to the handlebar clamp bolts,loosen them and you can rotate the handlebar down. Make sure you Loctite these bolts after you do the adjustments.
You can also just buy a stem and/or flat bars. Any bike shop will have what you need. The stem is a 1 1/8" threadless,the bars are standard MTB/hybrid. If you were to go with drop bars(the curved ones on road bikes) you'd need to also swap the stem,brake levers,and shifters. I'd try the adjusting the stock parts first,as this is free. Then if you still want to swap parts,you can take the bike to a shop and show them the bike and they'll know where yo wnat your bars to end up.
For the suspension forks,the blue arrow shows where the adjusters are. If you turn them both clockwise until they stop it will firm things out.