Originally Posted by nashvillebill

One thing I can't quite figure out on new bikes or wheels: How is reducing the spoke count an improvement? Even going from 36 to 32 means the rim and spokes will see a 10% increase in stress, going down into the low 20's or below seems a little ludicrous. I'd kinda like for my rims to survive a pothole or a curb hopping, cutting every single gram out to the point where the bike gets substantially weaker doesn't make sense to me.

(bought a used road bike a few months ago with a Campy rim on the rear, when I went to true it I saw the rim had already cracked through at the spokes. I was quite surprised how thin the aluminum rim was, and to be running with only 32 spokes on it...)

Maybe it's a conspiracy from the rim manufacturers to sell replacement rims