Well I just bought my first single-speed bike for dirt cheap. I don't know for sure but by the looks of it, it's some sort of frankenbike with various parts put together. The frame looks like it was originally red but has been touched up with black and there are plenty of places where it's just bare metal. Some of the bolts and hardware and whatnot shows some very minor rusting. It's on white tires that are in good shape. All in all, it rides like a champ and I'm really enjoying it.

What I'd really like to do is get in good working order and get it as clean as possible. I'm really not concerned with the paint. I think it has a lot of character, which is kinda cool for the beater/commuter bike that it is. Any recommendations on removing the rust from the hardware, adjusting the brakes, and overall maintenance and cleaning would be greatly appreciated. And I suppose I'm obliged to offer the customary apology for my newbie questions. Thanks!

take the entire thing apart, degrease it all, use CLR on the rust, grease all the bearings, buy a new chain if needed, and put it all back together...

Sounds straight-forward enough. Thanks.

When in doubt, pay a bike shop to do it.

Any idea what the ballpark cost would be to have them to a full tune-up?

$60 bucks if you're lucky.

That's not too bad but I would rather do things myself if I have that option.

It's really not too hard, and tell you the truth, you can do a much better job... You can take pretty much any bike apart with just an adjustable wrench, hex key set, crank puller and bottom bracket tool... And if you don't have them you can pay a shop to just remove the cranks and bottom bracket, then pay them to reinstall the BB when you're done... Should be like $20 bucks...

I have a bunch of tools but nothing really bike-specific so I might have to pay them to do that. Sounds like a great option for me. Thanks Nagrom.

yeah, no problem. good luck