Originally Posted by
gerv
Ok... I hope you like them. They do seem a little heavy... but I suppose that's a small price to pay for durability.
I consciously made that trade-off, since I was in the market to upgrade from a rather tired set of alloy rims on that particular bike, and wanted wheels that would last the remaining lifetime of the bike, and probably mine as well.
Derailleur geared rear wheels are inherently weak anyway, due to dish; add commuting loads, high utilization and road hazards to that, and you have potential for warped wheels/broken spokes and other issues that may delay your trip and add maintenance time when back at home. Thus, for my heavy duty commuters, I'm happy to add a little weight in order to gain reliability and the peace of mind that comes with it.
BTW, my other main commuter bikes feature alloy rear rims, with 40 and 48 spoke counts. The 48 spoke wheel was actually originally spec'd for a tandem.
FWIW, these are all drop bar road bikes, which is the only way I roll, so a strength upgrade (at least on the rear) from the typical narrow alloy rims is usually in order, for commuting purposes.