Years ago I heard a claim that Alpines were supposed to make things WORSE, not better.
The reason being that if you bend a thicker piece to the same radius as a thinner piece, the outside face of the thicker piece will have to stretch farther than the outside face of the thinner piece.
This extra deformation could then act as stress risers and starting points for cracks.


It sounds reasonable enough, but the few wheels I've built with Alpines have held up until the rims gave out.


Maybe the rumored superiority of the Alpines comes from anyone being interested enough to get them will also be interested enough to do do a good job of building the wheels.