Actually, in practice folks have broken spokes on Rolfs, Sweet 16's and Bontrager wheels and other than being a bit out of true, just as a 36h wheel might be, they were all able to ride home.

In fact, in one instance, some friends had just finished riding along side Rolf Dietrich who was stoking a tandem at the Northwest Tandem Rally in Eugene a few years back and talking about wheels, spoke breaks and what not with the usual manufacturer's position, "they're rare" and son of a gun, blew a rear wheel spoke. A short while later the broken spoke's paired mate failed. They finished the ride on the wheel, less two spokes, but at least the wheel was true again. They are about a 300lb team.

There was, in fact, a bad run of Rolf's early on where the wheel builder puportedly did not lace the wheels per spec and once those wheels that broke spokes were sent back and fixed by Rolf, few if any one has had further problems with broken spokes.

There was also a problem with the front wheel hubs on another generation of the Rolfs where the flange had been drilled between the spoke holes for some additional weight savings. In this instance, the radially spoked wheels would fail at the flange as a chuck of hub would be pulled out by the spoke head. Again, one of our friends (340# team) had this happen during a fairly challenging century in NC and they were able to finish the ride. once they lashed the flailing spoke to another spoke on the wheel.

True, which is why folks using these 'racing' wheels as every day wheels need to ask themselves, "why am I using THESE wheels?" They will not outlast conventional wheels and are just as vulnerable to road hazard damage and must typically be sent back to the manufacturer for repair / rebuilding as there are very few "authorized" service centers. Moreover, those repairs when not covered under warranty are expensive. And, lastly, even with their very high tension, I can tell you that the Rolfs do deflect quite a bit under side loads from even a somewhat lightweight team like us. You may never notice it unless you bomb through corners or go through a very high-G corner at the bottom of a short valley, but it's quite disconcerting if you're accustomed to the stablity that 36h conventional wheels (or greater) provide.

Unknown origin? Rolf's hubs are made by White Industries, just to Rolf's specs. In fact, the internals are interchangeable. I haven't asked who makes the rims or spokes, but it would clearly be another company of similar standing with a reputation for quality and reliability.