Aluminium Wheels
 

So I might have the chance to get a cheap HED3 aluminium front wheel soon...but how safe is it for street use? Any chance of catastrophic failure?

Aluminum braking surface HED3? I am aware of no full aluminum wheel. That said, my father and I have probably a combined 50k road miles on 2 sets of our and they are still going. And the only Trix that happen on our bikes come in plastic baggies, get stored in the back jersey pocket, and get eaten on the way to a ride.

To be honest im not sure, it will be second hand, I got an e-mail from a friend describing it as "Hed3 aluminium clincher front 700c"...maybe it is just the brake surface, looking on the website I can only see Clincher wheels under "aluminuim" and not "carbonlite" (www.hedwheels.com)