Still riding my mostly stock entry level Giant Defy3, which is now 3 years old. Sora/2200 mixed groupset. I alternate it with another bike so it doesn't get a ton of miles, but probably about 50 per week.

I've changed the chain, brake pads, and bartape. Everything else still works great, to my surprise, as I thought the Sora components would either fail or become unadjustable after 2 years, but that clearly hasn't been the case, and it's a triple to boot. It's not as perfectly buttery as when I first got it, but it's more than my match for hammerfest rides.

At some inevitable point though, that Sora WILL wear out and when I'm not happy with its performance any more, I'll swap it up to ultegra or get a new bicycle outright.

I don't have the time to build and break down bikes right now. In the future yes, but right now, when I've got a full time day job, toddler running around, wife who also works full time, and I throw 16-18 hours per week of training on top, there's def no time for me to mess with bike builds (even though I really want to.)

Funds aren't an issue for me at all regarding bikes, but my approach to acquiring and replacing things is pretty much on the lines of 'if ain't broke, don't fix it', and if I'm getting great riding and training on my stock bike, I'm going to avoid upgraditis and not swap everything out just because I can.