While I agree that a wheel with a higher spoke count is better for general riding and commuting, and requires less effort to keep its trueness, I think people are getting paranoid about this.
I've been at around 200lbs bodyweight and have used 20 spoked wheels (Mavic Cosmics) for some fair mileage with no problem whatsoever (up till now). The roads around here have more potholes than a bombed airfield.
Granted, with low spoke wheels you really have to avoid potholes, pray that the unavoidable/invisible pothole is not too serious, and remember that a single broken spoke is enough to render the bike unrideable.
Originally Posted by
bobk544
(...)Does this indicate that the 2009 low spoke count model may have been an insufficient design per chance?(...)
That's a real possibility, as is the hypothesis that the old 24 spoked wheel was regarded by potential buyers as fragile, so Trek may have upped the count to 28 just to dismiss their fears. Again, I agree that the 28 spoked wheel is the stronger one, all things being equal, and having 4 extra spokes doesn't hurt, but how necessary is this really?