I should probably add my own context here if I'm expecting others to contribute their stories.

I bought a Motobecane Mirage S from BikesDirect a few years ago, and its been fine as I start to ramp up my training. It's a road bike with aluminum frame and steel components. No carbon fiber to be seen. I think I got it for about $600 when it was new.

I figure its enough for me to complete a sprint, an oly, and maybe a 70.3, but if I wanted to keep doing 70.3 distances, I'd probably reach the point where investing made more sense. $4k and above for a proper time trial bike seems obscene to me at this moment, but so many others barely bat an eye when showing theirs off online.

So however you got the bike you race with, which of these routes was the closest?

• Saved for months to buy it outright
• Financed it (credit or loan of some kind)
• Found used for significantly less than the thousands I've seen
• Bought on impulse and now regret it (or not regretting it)
• Something else entirely

I don't care as much about the specific cost of the bike; I'm more interested in the route that it took to acquire it.