What I did was move the mid-range parts from my bike to my daughter's bottom-of-the-line Trek 1.2. So every time I'd upgrade a component (wheels, drivetrain, etc.), she'd get an upgrade, too. Most of the junk off her bike went onto her college beater bike. Now we've both got nice bikes and we enjoy riding and maintaining them together. And the beater bike ain't bad, either. It's got a crap steel MTB frame, but a Sora RD, etc., so it looks like junk but rides really nice.