Your second-hand bike rides just as fast as a new one. Freedom doesn’t check receipts.

The function and the price of a thing come apart more often than advertising suggests. Two wheels and a chain take you the same distance at the same speed whether the frame is new or came from somebody’s garage. What you are actually buying is range: the ability to get across town without asking anyone.

Spend this week using what you have rather than pricing an upgrade. Learn to fix a puncture and set the brakes, which does more for how it rides than money would. Then go somewhere further than you usually do, since the only waste would be owning the range and not using it.