Cromulent

On my ride to work this morning (yes, I know it's a commute, but I was doing hill repeats) I hear a dull metallic snap. Then the back brake starts rubbing. I pull over, dismount, and check the back wheel. Sure enough yet another spoke has broken.

At lunch, I ride over to the LBS and they fix it. The manager remarks that I've been in there a lot for this same problem. Too true. They've even rebuilt the back wheel with new spokes.

I ask him if it is my, not that I have one, fat butt. The manager assures me that it is not my weight (I hope he's not just being nice). The wheelset (the Alex AT400), he says, is not made for what I do on the bike. Okay - maybe they would be better suited to gathering dust while hanging from a hook in the garage.

I ride my bike. I ride it to work when the weather isn't horrible. I ride it on the weekends. I have raced it twice. I've put 4000 miles on the thing in less than a year. Not much to some, I know. Perhaps the wheels are not made to take the abuse of racing, but is it too much to ask that they work decently?

I look at a set of Eastons. The Vistas. They seem nice. I look at other Eastons, too expensive. I look at Bontragers. Nice, but I like the Eastons better. Will the Vistas do what I need them to do, which is take some racing and training abuse and still work decently?