I do feel spending a bit more on a bike/kit can gain more pleasure, there's cheap and cheerful but there's also cheap and nasty. But for that Sales where invented
This...
this is worth framing and putting on the wall; agreed!
I have found day rides are the place for my Nice Stuff. Real Tours™ get the Goodwill jerseys. I've made Old Jerseys out of too many New Jerseys while on-tour, thanks to pine and fir tree sap, creosote bush oil, sagebrush and juniper snags, and chain oil that migrates out of thin air to land in the most visible of places, never to be removed again. Don't forget alu rim oxide thrown from wet brake blocks. That stuff
never comes out (ever!).
The Rapha stuff always looks wonderful to me. I know someone locally who seems to have purchased their whole catalog. Nice stuff, but I can't afford or justify it for my use. Nice to look at and dream about, though. The company seems to be very good at creating "aspirational need"!
All the best,
Dan. (...who looks like a dandy on day rides and a hobo on-tour)