Yep I'll agree with you there. Properly built wheels last a long ass time before breaking spokes though.

Yeah dude, I spent the last 10,000 hours of my life reading millions of forum posts

Obviously not, but of all the ones I did read there was not a single negative.

Oh yea, for sure. Spoke breakage is definitely a worst-case scenario type of thing but I think it's still something worth considering a little bit when purchasing wheels.

Don't fool yourself. there is nothing special about their spokes, they are just straight pull stainless. They chose a design philosophy in which they wanted to use less spokes for aesthetic reasons so they use a heavier stiffer rim to compensate. There are quite a few companies that do this as well, such as mavic with the aksium/ksyrium.

I'm guessing you're a materials engineer to be in a position to make that claim? If you're so sure of that you should sue them for false advertising. Easy money.

Seriously though, not all steel is created equal.

how about you provide proof that they use some kind of special alloy for their spokes then? If they have magical spokes are resist fatigue so well then why do they have to use such heavy rims with similar dimensions as their competitors. They must know something that sapim doesn't....

What should we guess that you are with all of your baseless claims? Politician?

Let's start with some common sense... how the hell else are going to provide for no rider weight limit with stupidly low spoke counts otherwise? They didn't just throw a beefy rim on, the bulk of the weight is at the hub, not the rim.

If you want to hear it from someone else, here's a video:

Start at 2:40 for the spoke info, a little earlier for where the weight is located
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPW41cnuy30

I really didn't expect this to be a controversial topic. I just want some new wheels and I'm wondering if the cheap ones are worth it...

They don't use heavy rims. The rims are heavy COMPARED TO carbon rims because... wait for it... they aren't full carbon! Compare to the Zipp 30 or Zipp 60 and the DA wheels are lighter. You can't compare a full carbon wheel like a Roval Rapide to one that's more aluminum than carbon and say "it's a heavy rim". Compared to carbon, sure, but not in apples to apples comparisons (e.g. Zipp 60).

Proof that they're more alu than carbon right here:

Why would a company risk lawsuits left and right by making claims that aren't true? You're the one questioning it YOU come up with the proof otherwise.

You absolutely have to be trolling.

So you think they just threw a dart at a map and said "OOH, SWEDEN, THAT'S WHERE WE'LL SAY WE GOT OUR STEEL FROM" ?

"Then we'll use low spoke counts AND post no rider weight limit AND warranty it for 3x what most of our competition does!"

Does that really, truly make logical sense to you? Companies don't warranty products like that unless they're solid products, ESPECIALLY with no rider weight limit.

They are. I have a Madone 3.1, I think it came with the same wheels as your Emonda. They're branded something like "Bontrager Race Wheelset" and weigh a lot. Somehow they also managed to go out of true within the first 5 or 6 rides. I already had a set of Vuelta Corsa lites on my older bike that were much lighter, so I ordered a new freehub from Vuelta (old bike is Campy, new is Shimano), swapped that, and put them on.

They're probably a pound lighter than the Bontragers, and at about 180 lbs I don't notice any flexing. 1 spoke broke in a race crash, another on its own, but that's in about 20,000 miles on these wheels with some bad roads. Great wheels for the price. I will say that I've had problems with the freehub. I guess a few too many rain rides degraded the cartridge bearings in the freehub body, and like others mentioned, my Ultegra 6600 cassette gouged the splines pretty badly. I ended up replacing the freehub entirely because you can get a new one for $45 online and the old one was making an intermittent grinding noise under load.

I know someone will chime in and say a truly high quality wheelset should last through some rain rides without needing a $45 replacement part, but when you pay $220 for a set of wheels that feel great and lighten the bike, there's gotta be some downside and I guess that's it. Still, if you're handy you can replace the freehub and front/rear hub bearings with a kit of higher quality ceramic ones for $30 and probably avoid that problem in the future. I just didn't have the inclination for that. I also got a backup rear wheel and cassette to use for future rain rides for $10 from a friend, so I imagine the Vueltas will last thousands of additional miles for me.

Dude, chill. Spokes are spokes. And proprietary spokes are a ginormous pain in the ass. Dura Ace C24 wheels are fine wheels, but they're not the be all and end all of wheels. The OP wanted to know if some sub $300 were worth getting. The wheels you champion are not in that price range. Honestly, if I were looking in that price range (and didn't want to build something myself), I'd probably look at velomine.com. In that price range, they're not that light, but he sells some quality wheels at great prices (with shimano hubs and name brand rims if you're crazy about that sort of thing).

Alias is drinking the Shimano Kool-Aid. It's ridiculous how much of a fanboi he is. You put the Dura-Ace name on any product and he'll buy it and rave about how great it is. I bet Rapha is drooling over you as a potential customer.

Yes, the Vueltas are great for the money. I have a set of Corsa Lites and so far the only issue I've had is a gouged freehub body, which can be expected with pretty much any aluminum freehub body even on more expensive hubs. Lighter and stiffer than the Shimano RS10s they replaced. Haven't put them through a full season of wet PNW commuting yet, though, so we'll see how they hold up.

And I use only Red cassettes which don't damage freehub bodies. Jus' sayin'.

Careful with that. See my post about how my freehub started going south after a handful of wet rides. Take a look at these, no idea if they are better in wet weather than the stock Vuelta cartridges but they're cheap...

Vuelta Corsa Lite Hybrid Ball Bearing Kit Front Rear Freehub | eBay

While I agree with you in general, I meed to point out that lower spoke count wheels are usually tensioned the same as high spoke count wheels. That is, each spoke has approximately the same tension in both wheels. It is a common misconception that there is a certain total spoke tension (sum of all spokes) that all wheels must have. Totally untrue.

I think everyone would if we could all afford $200 cassettes

Shimano special steel or not, the only way to match the part of wheel stiffness due to spokes from wheel to wheel is to have the same total amount of cross sectional steel area in both wheels. And if that is the case, then the weight from the spokes would be about the same in both wheels. How the lower spoke count wheel would be a benefit other than a little bit of aero effect, I must say I cannot see.

I pay about $135, NOS, 10 speed.

I just think it's funny one of the first posts was "up your budget" and that's fine but I do the same and I get attacked from every direction.

Some people like nice things... if you don't, that's fine.

And spokes are not all created equal. In every industry on the planet, there are varying degrees of quality at every level. Spokes may be a simple idea in concept, but so are nails, screws, washers, etc. yet there are still pros/cons of each kind.