I should get a new bike
I rode another twenty miles today. I can feel the chain creaking and slipping over the sprockets as I power up a hill. Soon I'll start grinding them down, making acceleration and hill climbing impossible. Then it's a crap-shoot: either the chain will break, the sprockets unusable, or, like the last bike I destroyed, snap the axel.
I'm not that terribly good with bike mechanics. The only reason I know this, as I mentioned, is this'll be the second bike I'll have done this to. I ride them through dirt and mud and water and never clean or oil them. I also end up letting the gearing mechanisms go bad, forcing myself into a single gear (or be so cheap in buying a bike that I can't use any gear but the highest one).
All this to say that I think I need a new bike, as I'm not sure my current one will last another twenty. Any suggestions?