Mick F wrote:Brucey wrote:Even if some factory wheels are hand tensioned, they are not built to suit the rider. It doesn't make it any easier to source parts or fix these wheels when they break, and it doesn't make them any more likely to run through the chainstays when you lose a spoke, either.
............. so why do they exist even on run-of-the-mill "sports" bikes?
Because for the most part people follow fashion like sheep,they see the successful racers riding X type bikes,in X colours,wearing X type clothing and want to be in with the in crowd.
IMO there's a lot of people getting into the 'new golf' walking in blind as bats with scant knowledge other than reviews read in glossy magazines with snazzy photos,al froth and little substance.
I don't want to mention C+,but I will coz they deserve the exposure
That's not to say that all minimum spoke wheels and their owners are to be lumped into that category as has be shown by some of the experiences by posters above,but if minimum spoke wheels fail,it's likely to be catastrophic and spares hard to come by.
OTOH conventional 32 or 36 spoke wheels can be rebuilt with new rims,hubs and spokes lasting for a long time min spokers generally are use and throw away consumables and more so the cheaper end ones on low to mid range and some higher end bikes.
If the gains where high and losses low they'd be a good buy,as it is the gains aren't much and the downsides really bad even potentially dangerous,and when wheels are costing upward of £400,things are getting silly from my POV.
Contrast that with a 36 spoke wheel spoke breakage which with a 5 minutes spoke key tweaking by the roadside and away you go,get home replace spoke with the spare you bought when you bought the wheels,no worries.
But now we seem to have entered a time where the only spares people carry are as minimal as the spokes,but the mobile phone is essential kit.On more than one occasion I've stopped to offer assistance to stranded riders to be told ''the wife's on her way to pick me up'' and mostly they've been stranded by a puncture!
This is the era of taking the bike into a shop for servicing much like you'd do with you're car,and changing the bike for the latest model,because last years colour is out of fashion.
Again that doesn't apply to everyone but it's becoming more prevalent,and so it goes,hey ho,it's a brave new world and the poverty of affluence
I'm aware I'm an old phart brought up in the fix it yourself school of instruction,so don't beat me up too much