Originally Posted by queerpunk
i agree that some lines get repeated over and over, but weight, where you ride, and how you ride do really come in to play. my commute last year had some unavoidable, ****ty pavement. it was like riding concrete moguls. some people have a tendency to go up and down curbs a lot, and some people do it more gracefully than others do. some people talk about "beating their wheels up on the streets," and it gets kind of annoying, but some people really do beat up their wheels on the streets.
that said, i weight 140, ride hard, and my iro/aerohead wheel has sustained multiple beatings and is still tensioned and true as the day i got it, eighteen months ago. so i kind of feel that a well-built, smartly-built wheel is what people need.
Toadally. That's all I'm saying, is that if you ride hard, you need a good wheelbuilder, not some 2-ton anchor masquerading as a wheel. Rock aerospokes because you live in a flat city, or because you want a mag wheel without spending a lot of dough. But telling yourself you're somehow so abusive with wheels that you need special composites is just wishful thinking. This is similar to people's perceived need for 1/8" chains. If you're not snapping crank arms and pulling out of SPD-R pedals or snapping steel bars on your standing starts at stop lights, I highly doubt you'll be able to snap a 3/32" chain.