Originally Posted by
tom cotter
Only a rich man can afford cheap tools.
Panniers and racks should be long wear items. The cost of buying the best is amortized over the long life of the product. And, yes you could save some money by going lower shelf, but why would you? To save what? Maybe a couple hundred bucks? IMO, that makes no sense.
It makes sense if that couple hundred bucks is what enables you to acquire other essentials. A person can damage high end stuff through misuse as well as a careful person can make low end stuff last through care.