How many miles did you ride this week?
Talk about a rabbit hole you went down into ... deep ... and it has a ton of little branches with more holes!
I would still advocate to buy a $800 modern bike. Ride it and sell it when your project comes to fruition. The older I get the more I am going for instant gratification. At our ages, we never know if we can even still ride next year.
I found this gem on YouTube. Pretty cool test. The guy cracked me up too.