Originally Posted by
tie.fighter
Yep- had a look at my rear wheel and I don't think I want to take the risk! Commute is about 11 miles/day in and out of London, so the roads are pretty decent. The front blew out on Monday night going round the one-way system at Aldwych, luckily during a break in the traffic so wasn't a problem to cross over 3 lanes to get to the pavement...
Found a pair of new Fulcrum 7s for not much more (each) than this guy wants for the front Vento. 4 years is not bad use, especially considering the amount I save not buying tube tickets
I'd strongly recommend the common (Mavic, DT, Velocity) conventional rim of your choice laced to a set of cup-and-cone Campagnolo hubs (they seem to be offering Centaur hubs with the 2007 and newer over-sized axle setup although those aren't listed in the spare parts catalogs).
When you finally wear out or crash a rim you get a new one with this year's decals, de-tension the wheel, tape the new one to the old one, move the spokes over one at a time, cut the tape, and tension + true normally with no need to stress relieve since the spokes are in the original orientation.
I've been doing that since I got my first nice bicycle fifteen years ago. My Chorus hubs have fifteen years on the original bearings, I got 12-14 years out of my last front until I bent it, and it's been 5-6 years since I've crashed a rear. The most recent replacement ran $80 including shipping. With lower cost rims it would have been under $50.