I should be more careful and specify that I am talking about 36 spoke or more wheels. In 26 for touring I am using 36 spoke MA2 wheels. Even though it is true that spoke counts keep falling, that is just one of many reasons to buy only hand built wheels. Anyone who is going to specify A719 rims or A717 for 26, can get whatever spoke count is made. One of the problems with 40 spoke wheels is that some of the better rims don't come that way, not to mention hubs. But there are lots of good hubs made in 36. Last time I was at Urbane they were selling the LX for 55 dollars can., the pair. Nashbar usually has some stranded nos stock in 36 hole, and it runs as low as 5 bucks. If I were budgeting big bucks for the needed stuff I would go for some 719/717 some serious hubs and high spoke count wheels.

Urbane rather likes the Alexrims DH22 for touring on a budget, or not:

http://www.alexrims.com/product_deta...=2&cat=2&id=69

You can get both sizes in 36 spoke.

My feeling is that if I saddled a rim I would probably just pick up a a whole wheel if it was 26" everyone has moutain bikes and in the middle of nowhere, even the local farmer might be able to fix you up.