Judging by the forward and rear brakes, I'd go with single-speed freewheel.

Also, I agree with Mitty -- the vast majority of the cycling experience in the world is on Wally World bikes. If we want to enjoy the bikes we pay more for and dig more, that's great, but it makes us enthusiasts.

If we want to bring some of the fruits of our enthusiasm to the wider world, we need to make some decisions as to what's most important, and bring the price point down.

In my (occasionally) humble opinion, an adequately built and adjusted bike with a passable frame and wheelset are the point where diminishing returns can really start to kick in. And LBS's can easily sell such a bike for $200 or less, allowing them to compete with the Wally World bikes by offering a much higher quality product for a somewhat higher price.

But that will require a change in how LBS's do business -- they will have to become better at training staff to size up and process customers quickly, make the shopping experience more pleasant in general, and advertise that their bikes are professionally selected and assembled.

We're really not suggesting that the LBS model is flawed as a whole. What we are suggesting is that there are some fairly low-key tweaks which could allow LBS's to move a lot of low-end bikes and get more and more people into cycling.