Originally Posted by
stevage
my requirements pretty clearly: tough enough to survive lots of fully loaded touring on dirt roads, plus mountain biking, and general abuse (I commute around 70km/week).
In fact, one reason I bought it in such a hurry was I just broke a couple of spokes on that kind of 5 day tour last week (caused by rim wearing out, I think), and am doing a 100km mountain bike race next weekend (in the cyclocross category).
I wonder if the shop heard you say "cyclocross race wheel" and "not expensive" as anything more durable would have been a custom build.
I'd go with SunCR18, Mavic 319 or Alex Adventurer in 36spokes. Doesn't have to be butted as rough use will eventually ding the rim flange or bend the wheel long before the spokes fail due to fatigue.
just checked Alex website, yep that's weird, they replaced a 510gram 22.6 wide rim with a 435gram 19.6 wide rim. btw your link is to a DA-16 not a DA-22(er, or it's Alex showing the wrong rim) It looks like a fine road rim but I don't see it as a heavy duty touring wheel where you're going to be running 35mm tires, definitely not a rear wheel. Seriously you aren't going to notice riding on a heavy rear wheel touring and if you are planning on racing you should have a separate set of wheels. Now is a good time to learn to build a wheel using your old hub. I'd use this wheel for racing then order up an Alex Adventurer and build a new touring wheel. Once you ride on that new wheel it's yours.