I may be sorry I started this line of response, but here goes. First OP, I totally respect your riding prowess. From what you say, you ride at a level I never have even dreamed of. My best day ever was 50 miles at 20.5/mile on a completely flat road. A few years later that is just a fond memory. But this goes way beyond riding...

I just don't understand how you can think of paying a small fortune for goods that cost so little to produce. Do the ENVE people not totally insult you? Do they not make you angry? Their rims altogether probably cost under $50/pair to make, and you would pay WHAT for them? Same for Chris King, who has for years hidden his profit margins behind a smoke screen of techno-bull and tough back-to-basics talk. He is the grand denyer, saying nothing new can be any good, because he chooses to charge way too much for the old-fashioned. I feel the same way about Sapim ($3.00 for a little strip of stainless steel, FGS), but since there is no functionally equivalent alternative at a cheaper price, there is no choice there.

I read what you said about always wanting to look like a pro in any kind of sport you pursued. Fair enough, I can understand that, but you are forgetting one thing. The pros get this stuff for free. They don't ride it because it is best or prettiest, but because it is given to them. You're the patsy that pays for all that.

When it comes down to it, what irks me the most is that you are considering forsaking the best riding solution for the flashiest. Man that is hard to accept. After having the great good luck to fall into this relationship with Jude and get this free-for-nothing demo test, you are ignoring the results for a little sparkle. And your good friends on the "41" are egging you on. "Just buy it man. You're gonna have the sweetest ride on the road. So what if your kids can't go to college?" (Hey, please forgive that. It was a cheap shot but a little too hard to pass up. I think you know what I DO mean.)

If it were me, I would learn to build wheels. I would invest some money in the necessary equipment (truing stand, tensiometer, aero spoke gripper, etc.). I would go to BHS and get their highly functional, very inexpensive wheel components, and I would build the pair of wheels that are really going to improve my riding and the enjoyment of it. Probably their deep, 23 mm wide aluminum rims for under $60 apiece. And then I would deposit the extra $1,500 in my kids' college fund. Oh, and I would be LOL every time I aired up my tires and took a good look at my wheels that I had built, every time I dropped my friends on a ride, and certainly every time one of them told me what he paid for his new wheels.

I hope I haven't offended you. You did ask to be dissuaded from the ENVEs. I know I took it a step or two further, but I am just being honest with you according to my beliefs. Parting shot: let the other guys be the patsies; you be the smart one.

Robert