Purchasing a Bike

I visited a handful of bike shops today.
There are several along major trails in my area.
My Atala is a humble commuter/street bike. It seems it does not have a modern equivalent in the US.
The closest thing, road bikes, are expensive $1k-2.5k.
I cannot justify this expense for something that I expect will get years of light use.
I’m not exercising on the bike.

Out of desperation, I remembered that the secondhand market exists.
And boom, I’m in business.
I can find bikes in good condition from a few years ago for 30-50% less than today’s version.
Similar to the phone market.