I bought my bike over 3 years ago for $1000, but I've probably spent 3X that on clothes, tune-ups, food pump, tubes, etc. I don't want to think about it any longer, or I may remember even more expenditures that push that multiplier to 4 or 5! Even if you buy a $4K bike, that just means you are going to spend even more on nicer gear. In the long run, the bike is actually probably cheaper than the rest of the expenses you start tallying up.