About two uears ago I got into mountain biking. Went into a bile shop with and spent $300 on a mountain-ish bike and a helmet.
I thought about upgrading multiple times because "I had outgrown the bike". An upgrade was $1200.
So, I decided to only upgrade if I could not beat my best time on a specific short trail. Well, I kept going faster and fastee. Untill the tires were the obvious thing holding me back.
I upgraded the tires for $20 (clearance sale) and tested again. Still faster.
Buy used! You get the upgrade without having to spend as much money.
I do think the upgrade from a new $300 bike to a used (originally) $1200 bike would be very worth it.
I owned a pretty cheat big box bike, an $800 Kona Stuff (probably don't even make that anymore, and a $2700 Santa Cruz Bullet. Every time the upgrsde made a big difference and you could really feel the quality in what you were getting. I will say the upgrade from hardtail $800 bike to dual suspension $2,700 bike was a MASSIVE increase in performance.
I thought about upgrading multiple times because "I had outgrown the bike". An upgrade was $1200.
So, I decided to only upgrade if I could not beat my best time on a specific short trail. Well, I kept going faster and fastee. Untill the tires were the obvious thing holding me back.
I upgraded the tires for $20 (clearance sale) and tested again. Still faster.
Ended up not buying the new $1200 bike.