I would spend the money. if you are like me, and your bike and riding are staples in your life, I would go for it. I race and originally had super inexpensive bottle cages on my bike, and the bottles fell right out in the middle of a crit!!! Not good. I went back and spent more on the right bottle cages (and got them to match my frame) and no more bottles falling out to the wayside (or potentially causing crashes). I would get the cages.