Just bought a bicycle

I'd been looking for a bike for a couple months. I was looking at a Schwinn Admiral the usually retailed for $160 and had been saving the money. Wednesday night I happened to be in WalMart and found one on clearance for $100. I had that much cash saved already so it came home with me. After sitting on the thing in the store I knew I would have to replace the seat and handlebars with something I actually find comfortable.

After getting it home I was right the seat and bars suck. Also since I'm 34 and haven't sat on a bike since I got my drivers license I find that with the bike only having 7 speeds I need a lower granny gear. Oh well just paid $24 for a new handlebar from the bike shop will pay them 30 for a new cassette with a super granny gear and installation, order a good set of tires for $30 (will do the labor myself), then go to WalMart and get a different seat for another $25. So basically I'm going to have a bike that is comfortable to ride and reliable (may be a WalMart bike but steel frames are solid) for $210. Forget reliable I would have spent that making it comfortable if purchased at full price.

Now that I have it I have been forcing myself to ride it with no excuses. Yesterday work absolutely wore me out, but I jumped on the bike anyway. Today it's raining but I rode it to the bike shop to buy some new bars. No excuses I'm going to ride this thing and I'm going to get in shape!

This is a stock picture of the bike. I'll post a pic of my actual bike after I get it finished.

Anybody else ride? Show us your ride.

 

Yes came exactly as pictured except the bell was missing from mine. It has 7 speeds. I thought it was a nice compromise between style and function. Just that at 280 lbs I need a bit more of a granny gear. The hill that I have to climb beside my house isn't long but it is steep. It gains 150-175 feet in all of two blocks (about 1/8 mile)

 

SWEET I love bikes like that. I almost got one similar, but I doubt i would want to ride it seven miles one way to work (assuming i get in shape to do so)

 

I hate my windows phone!! It will not just let me post a pic and imigur doesn't want to work right today. So I cannot post a pic today.
Anyway, even if nobody else reads this I'm going to note this for my own sake.

The bike itself has undergone a few changes. It now has a black raised bar (similar to a dirt bike) , i mounted my accessory kit (lights, water bottle, and pump) , and got the rear shifter working properly.

Me: the first ride was about a mile and it almost killed me. Sunday was a beautiful day so I spent most of it riding the bike. Today after putting in 9 hours stacking boxes at work i made myself ride it afterwards. I just now got back and from a 5 mile ride that was intentionally made to be mostly up hill. Though I was a bit tired i probably could have went further.

Unfortunately though it sounds like the bearing in the bottom bracket (the pedal mount) is already failing . I started to feel a small click in the pedal about half way through my ride and by the time I got home it sounded like the bike was trying to shift gears (single speed up front). Guess I get to call the bike shop in a couple hours.