Originally Posted by bpcyclist

Well, here in the #2 rain capital of our fine nation, I was recently in the market for some new wheels for my BMC SLR02. I don't race, but I do ride quite a bit. I looked hard at some of the lower cost options for carbon + rim brakes, as that is what I have on this bike. I talked to several bike shops in town who sell carbon wheelsets. For a person with my sort of mileage (around 7200ish miles/yr.), they all advised against going with carbon fiber rims + my 105 rim brakes. Now, maybe that advice would have been different if my wheel budget were $3000, but it was not. So, I settled on what I think is a very nice budget aluminum wheelset made by someone competent that will still be a nice upgrade from my current Mavics. They should arrive next week and I will report. By the way, the Mavics are two years old and I just took my 1000-lumen Cygolite to them inch by inch. They have hardly any visible wear on them--at all. Mavic clearly make quality stuff--I just wanted something a bit different.