Fair enough.

Agree completely with the early maintenance points. And add, one of my frustrations is with shops that seem to send known clydes out on factory build wheels with the advice to, "bring them back in a month", without first providing them with any of the service that would help assure that nothing is needed in months time. A bit of elbow forming, stress relieving and tensioning early in a wheels life go a long way to ensuring it's ultimate durability.

I wonder if what you consider to be "over built" and what I believed you to be refering to are the same. Im currently sporting 32 hole, 585's, 3X to ultegra hubs for a 250lb'er. Are those the sort of wheels you're referring to as "over built"? Or, is your definition more of the tandem spoking, 4x, 13ga varient?

With regard to the maintenance interval. Good on ya for finding a decent shop and supporting them. I just can't justify either the cost of such, the transport issues to the shops I would trust or the loss of my primary bike 1 out of 4 weeks. I had been a firm believer in leaving wheel building and truing in the hands of those that did it frquently and should be well practiced at it. Until I was so disappointed by so many of them and finally had to take my own wheel building and maintenance into my own hands. I've been much happier since.