I’d like an outside, unbiased perspective on a situation because the people close to me already know me and may be biased, and I’m aware that I might unintentionally present things from my own angle. I genuinely want neutral opinions on whether this situation sounds fair or unfair.
Here’s the situation: Some time ago, my ex-partner found two abandoned bikes. We took both, one for each of us. At the time, they already owned two functioning bicycles, while I didn’t have a suitable one. My own bike caused physical discomfort because of chronic pain issues, so they gave one of the found bikes to me specifically because its more upright riding position suited my needs better.
This mattered a lot to me emotionally. I was visibly happy and excited when they gave it to me, and I even double-checked: “Is this really mine?” because I genuinely couldn’t believe someone I cared about would do something so thoughtful to help me avoid pain. Because of that, the bicycle felt like a meaningful gift, not just a practical object.
After we broke up, my bicycle stayed stored at their place over the winter. I didn’t ask for it earlier because winter here makes cycling impractical, so there was no immediate reason to retrieve. We have lots of snow and ice.
When spring came, I asked if I could come pick up my bike soon. The response I received was essentially: "No, I took it for myself", because they had assumed I wouldn’t ask for it back. By that point, they had also repaired and put work into the bike..
They now justify keeping it partly by saying the bike was in such poor condition that taking it for themselves was reasonable, although I was fully aware from the beginning that it needed work.
I’m not even insisting on getting that exact bicycle back anymore, since I understand they invested effort into fixing it. I would have been open to agreeing on some alternative solution or compensation. What bothers me is that the situation hasn’t really been acknowledged as problematic from their side, and it has been left unresolved.
I mainly want't perspectives on whether my reaction is reasonable and is her behavior fair?
EDIT:The bike was at her place because she found it more convenient to store it there. See wanted to fix it together, but she was busy and we never got around to doing it.