Originally Posted by
rydabent
What has been your experience?
The OEM wheels that were on my touring bike when I bought it were definitely "computer built," and I usually checked their trueness about once a year. I never had to make more than a minor adjustment to those wheels.
I ended up building a new front wheel for that same bike (laced a Sturmey Archer XL-FDD into a Mavic A319) because my V-brake arms were wearing out too quickly due to my all-weather riding habits. The drum brake in the new hub gave me a permanent solution to my front braking needs, so I built the wheel myself. I've checked it for trueness once a year (about 4 years total) and have never had to make any adjustments. Once the spokes were properly tensioned and balanced, that wheel became pretty much bomb-proof.
That's been my experience with pretty much all my wheels across 5 different bikes over the years: once you get the spoke tension right, there's not much in the day-to-day world that will un-true a good wheel.