While talking with the mechanic about the wheel, we concluded part of my problem is the quality of the roads I ride. During the last ride, I covered a 2-mile stretch of "paved" road that just beat me to death. The base was cracked like a dried mud flat and the patch coat was even worse -- it would have been much better left as a gravel road. The vibration was so bad my wired bike computer quit working!

So the lesson is the wheel was probably not tensioned right to begin with, and the bad roads are bringing these flaws to the surface. The bright side is this is an excellent "proving grounds" as I get used to the new bike and once everything is dialed in I'll know the bike will be ready for just about anything.