Originally Posted by
Homeyba
Ok, I'll edukate you.
The issue is that you're (or your friends are) looking at the wrong issue. The reason that you don't have problems with your lightweight, low spoke count wheels has nothing to do with the weight or the number of spokes your wheels have. It has everything to do with the fact that all those wheels are hand built by people who know how to build wheels. The reason so many "clydes' have wheel problems here is because they are mostly on lower end mass produced wheels. If all their wheels were built with care they wouldn't have problems either.
I ride wheels similar to you and have had the same experience and I ride 6-10k miles/year. In fact, I have a Zipp 404s on my tandem and a set for my single bike that I've done two RAAM's on. My Topolino's have 30k+ miles on them with no broken spokes. It's not the wheel, it's the wheel builder that makes a wheel!
And this! ^^^^^
Although, I would be surprised to learn that the Ksyrium Elites and Sram S30's are "hand built". I would expect that they are hand finished to a greater degree of consistancy than the average stock wheels on a new bike.
Homeyba and everyone else, if you have had good experiences with Sram S30's (any of the various models) or Zipp 101's, or know of 235lb+ clydes who have, I'm very interested in hearing about them. Given the occassional nature of the rim issues with Mavics and the incredibly expensive service of them here in NZ, I'm leaning away from them as my potential quick/interim event wheels and towards the former.