Bicycle Repair - Victorious!

Today I decided it was time to do something with the road bike I bought like 2 months ago at the thrift store for $5.50. I wasn't optimistic about the bike when I first bought it, it seemed to be held together by a lot of wire. The first thing I wanted to do was figure out if I needed 2 new tubes for the tires or just one. The front one had a really big hole in it and I decided that it was pointless to repair it. The rear one was in good shape. I went to the bike shop to get a new tube and was asked if it was a Schraeder or Presta valve on the tube. I had no clue and the guy ended up selling me a tube with a Presta valve, which is not what I had before. No big deal, I figured that at some point I'd need another new tube and I'd get a Schraeder one then. That time came a lot sooner than expected because I've already broken the Presta valve. It seems to still be holding the pressure OK so I'm not going to replace it just yet. The front brakes lack any cable at all, and the rear brakes didn't even come close to touching the rim, but an easy adjustment fixed that. So all in all, I got the thing at a point where I can ride it around. The gears seem to shift alright, but if the bike were worth anything I'd get different shifters. It's got the old school shifters that aren't indexed and I'm not a big fan of them. But for $5.50 and a new tube (another $4.75 - almost as much as the bike!) I'm not complaining. And, it's a beautiful day out. So I'm going to go out and see how long it takes before something else brakes on it!