Training Wheel Set

[Hawkwood]

Yep, I agree with everything you say, including and special emphasis on, "It's all a wash anyway because if you go custom you get a decade or more of trouble free riding, go the budget route and you spend the same or more maintaining and fixing every other season."

I had a pair of wheels built up around 1984, Saturae 32 hole rims on Mavic hubs. I used them for racing, training and even touring until about 1995 at which point the from rim particularly was wearing thin from braking. I then had the hubs built up into another set of wheels with Mavic rims. I finally sold the rear hub on an auction site, but the front wheel is still perfectly usable though not on a bike at the moment. A mate of mine swears by budget wheels, and there's been many a happy time stopped at the side of a road while he tries to straighten a wheel that's gone banana shaped!