I’ve had years of joy and fitness cycling with cheap equipment. I’ve also had years of even more joy and fitness and goal achievement with relatively expensive

I’ve had years of joy and fitness cycling with cheap equipment. I’ve also had years of even more joy and fitness and goal achievement with relatively expensive equipment. You weigh out what it’s worth to you for what you get out of it. You make the careful choice relative to everything you care about holistically and strategically. The polarized ideas that you need to spend very little or an extreme amount are equally reductive. You should spend the amount you have carefully negotiated with yourself and your priorities. For cycling in particular, you don’t need much to start out with. Slowly over time you may increase in fitness and time investment, community, goals. From there it becomes worth investing more IMO.