Originally Posted by PeteHski

For me it's when you get into more extreme situations when the top quality gear really comes into its own. Like when you are climbing for hours on end in blistering heat or getting drenched by rain. Pottering along at 110W it probably doesn't matter so much what jersey you are wearing providing you have a half reasonable pair of bibs. But I'd still rather have a couple of really nice quality jerseys over a dozen cheap generic ones. They always wash better. Perhaps ironically I wear a lot of generic cheap junk off the bike and it tends to fall to pieces quite quickly with wear and tear.