I managed to get some litepro s42 rims in singapore for like 325 sgd.

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...psxza17wwa.jpg

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...psxwudzypv.jpg

havent really rode fast with the wheel yet. bearings is okay, might want to true the rim though, the rim was slightly out of true which is slightly disappointing at that price

As the OP, I wanted to sum up that I finally resolved the first issue, and as you might have noted in my recent thread, bought a used BF Pocket Rocket. We'll see how it goes from here.