>>1399924I ended up getting the Diamondback I put in the first post; of the various postings, he's actually the only one to even respond, but I'm pretty happy with it as is. Not depicted are the two bags, the two bag racks, and the bike lock that came with it.
Took it to an LBS, their shop tech was out so they didn't try to upsell me into a tuneup, but the manager looked at it since it was a slow, rainy Sunday. He said that the tires were good, frame was good, cassette was good, that the rear wheel was slightly out of true but not enough to be a safety issue, and that the chain was worn to hell and probably the original chain from the first purchase. So, he replaced the chain, and gave the bike a clean bill of health.
Rode it around a bit, I really don't remember bikes being this fast as a kid. I know I'm not actually doing this speed, it's just perception, but it feels like it gets to 25-30 mph on flats, and that's a lot faster than I remember. Something about rear gear 4 feels wrong, though; it jumps a lot when on that gear, so I've already started shifting right past it.
Did about 2 miles total and felt like dying afterwards, so I'm going to do another 2 miles tonight and the night after that and so on until it doesn't make me feel like dying before committing to a ride to work on it, but I'll get there. I knew I was a lardass going into this, and I knew it wasn't gonna be easy, but it's worth it.
Thanks for the help, anons.
