I got back into bikes about 5 years ago, and have put more miles on my bicycles in the past few years than my Concours.
My beater/camping/rain bike is an Iron Horse Transit, but I added a disc fork in the front with a hydraulic disc brake. A 50T single up front, cyclocross tires etc.
Then I built a nicer flat bar road bike, started with a new Raleigh Cadent 5.0 frame from eBay. It has a SRAM drivetrain and Shimano flat bar 10spd shifters, and Ultegra derailleur. Mavic Aksium wheelset with ultra gatorskins.
I spent too much money building up the Raleigh, but I did end up with exactly what I wanted.