Originally Posted by
graywolf
Your point is that cheap machine built wheels are not as good as expensive hand built wheels? Why not compare cheap hand built wheels to expensive machine built wheels? $20 wheels are not as good as $100 wheels, unless you paid $100 for $20 wheels thinking the price is what counts.
I am unaware of there being machine-built wheels meeting my constraints, when I was ordering them, so the issue of hand-built vs machine as such has been largely moot for me. Knowing how materials behave, in a configuration such as a wheel, I would not be surprised by the best hand-build wheels being better than machine. Cheap wheels on the market are machine built and, for me, are pretty senseless in exploitation, after having compared them to the expensive hand-built wheels, and this was my major point.
Originally Posted by
graywolf
I will stick to my statement that everything else being equal the robot built wheel will be a better wheel. The machine built wheels on my Bianchi which is now old enough to vote, and spent its first few years as a serious year round commuter, are still spinning.
I am unaware of data on this direction of superiority and have not heard such a claim before. My wheels are not likely to last as long as yours because of the rim wear, which may be one indicator of how much more beating mine get than yours. In this context, the time length in isolation might not be an absolute indicator of wheel durability.
Originally Posted by
graywolf
And, millions of riders around the world buy throw away bicycles because we live in a throw away society. That is another issue entirely.
The poster has used the millions as an argument for the value of machine-built wheels that, in the mass, are cheap. Those millions, nearly exclusively, never adjust their wheels nor care much for the quality of what they buy. The very fact that you need to adjust the wheel points to the wheel's mediocrity. I do know how much more precision I need to put into this point, that is well integrated with this discussion.