Just last week I did an almost complete overhaul on a 29inch Genesis Incline for a young teenager that found me on CL. The bike was a complete mess. I think there was a combination of things wrong. I’m not a bike snob and am happy to fix any bike. So, I’m not saying any of this to be insulting. It is a low end bike that was designed to hit as many features as possible at the lowest possible price point. The result is an extreme sacrifice of quality. Also the bike was never assembled right to begin with. Therefore this teenager had been trying to fix things himself. It was a mess. I did my best to fix it up with spare parts I had laying around and gave he and his dad the advice not to continue putting money into it and start saving for something new. I also offered to maintain it at no cost until he saved enough for something new. For example the tires were 29x2.3 which would cost about $100 to replace, the front shocks were frozen, the barrel adjusters had stripped out of both brake levers, there was no grease in the bottom bracket , all to the bearings where not adjusted properly, etc. I would have felt terrible letting him spend $100 on tires only to have something else break in a month.
That being said, if you are entertaining yourself with this bike absolutely go for it. If you are looking for a rock solid bike that is NOT a money pit… this probably isn’t the right bike.
Happy to answer any questions. Sounds like you are trying to replace a bunch of parts. My advice would be to look for a donor bike or two at thrift stores. You can probably find a couple abandoned bikes for $10 if you look around. Strip them all down and you will have a small pile of parts to pick from. Make it into a true rat!
Happy to help. If you get stuck pictures of the issues always help.
