Originally Posted by furiousbob
Annnd after all this debating about which parts are good and which parts don't make any sense on this bike...I'm still confused...can somebody explain all this lingo or give me a bottom line?
Well, it's a low-end mountain/road bike. None of the parts are going to be top-of-the-line. But it will probably be servicable and work well enough unless you start beating the crap out of it.
Also: One thing that's nice about a SS is that it's a lot less intimidating once you own it. Feel free to mess around with it, take it apart, etc. It's not that complicating if you think about things logically (and you have the bike in front of you).