I'm going to hijack this a bit because I don't feel like starting another thread. Just dropped off the wheel that was handbuilt and started popping spokes on the Century ride yesterday. A few days to true it. Great.

On top of that this new guy who does build wheels is telling me that it may still happen again and that he'd recommend a different rim/spoke/hub combination. I'll wait till the manager comes in tomorrow and see if it makes sense to pursue that and just apply the cost of this wheel to something beefier. I just know nothing of strong 27" wheels - 700c's plenty of discussions. Grrrr......

For the record - when I was apprehensive on getting a road bike this was exactly what I was afraid of. I hope that in the end it'll get to the point where I will be able to ride this and not worry about it going boom. Bunch of folks do these rides up to the mountains on weekends (60 - 140 miles depending on the route) and I want to do that but can't trust I won't get stuck.