Originally Posted by
cyccommute
How often you use your brakes is the most important parameter. If you don’t use your brakes that often, you rims will last longer.
Effects of environmental conditions can be just as dramatic. I've got two Sun M13II rims that each have about 1,500 miles on them, both ridden by myself over about the same span of time in the same area. One has been used almost entirely in the dry, the other almost entirely in abrasive PNW wet conditions. The former still looks practically new, the latter is most of the way through its wear life.
Not quite. I’m not sure what you mean by a “basic” rim nor by a “fancy aluminum” rim but $200 is far too high for even the fanciest of aluminum rims and $30 for a cheap rim is probably too low. $40 to $90 would be a more realist range.
By "basic" I'm referring to entry-level box-section rims like a CR18. By "fancy" I'm referring to exotic high-performance designs like the AForce Al33 (perhaps usually less than $200, but with options like ceramic coating they can get close).
It’s also not as simple as you make it out to be. Rims have different effective rim diameters (ERDs) that have to be matched or the spokes won’t work. A single wall rims ($40 above) can’t just be swapped for a double walled rim (the $90 one). The spokes would be too long. The spokes would be too short if you went the other way.
That's why I mentioned the cost of spokes.