Originally Posted by
urbanknight
Low spoke counts require a stronger rim, and strengthening the rim enough to match the lost spokes usually results in more weight than the lost spokes. The worst part of that is that breaking a spoke on a low count wheel has a higher risk of the wheel coming too out of true to continue riding. I'm happy that although my 28 spoke wheels (that weigh 1375g/pair, by the way) should never break a spoke, I can likely just wrap the broken one around its neighbor and continue riding should that ever happen.
I've always wondered about the low spoke count thing. Does spoke count affect aerodynamics much, given the same rim? I'm aware that the aerodynamics of a deeper rim generally come from the fact that there is just less spoke length exposed in the frontal profile, but for many of these 30mm rim wheels (which is hardly aero), it seems that a 16-spoke front is frivolous considering the weight of the rim itself.