At 190 pounds, stick with 32 or 36 spoke wheels, especially if you plan on using it for training. A wheel that you possibly can't ride home on if you brake a single spoke - any of the lower spoke count wheels would be an issue. You don't need to worry about wheel weight if you yourself can lose multiples of the difference between the wheels.

I have owned two sets of these since they became available and have nothing but good things to say about them. Although I now use American Classic CR-350's for training wheels and have American Classic 58mm carbon wheels for roadie road races, I still depend on the the Tempest II's as my primary criterium wheels and find that paired with Veloflex Paves clinchers, they are very nice. The wife and I have both used them as training wheels and in over 10,000 miles of riding, the only problems I have experienced:

• Damaged bearing cover first time I tried to service bearings (failed to read service literature posted on Velomax's website)
• Broken spoke nipple as a result of attempting to true wheel prior to realizing spoke nipples had threadlock compound applied at factory (again failure to RTFM).

Both times the problems where self induced as nothing was wrong other than my perception and in both cases, there would have been nothing wrong with doing absolutely nothing. Velomax, now Easton's technical support was excellent in both cases as I got the wheel rebuilt for $90 when I broke the spoke nipple, and new bearings/covers were only $40 and much easier to install after I RTFM! Finally, I am 6' and currently 170 (racing trim) but when I first got the wheels, I was out of shape and put in a lot of miles on them while I was weighing around 195-200 and still did not have any problems with flex or durability. Velomax even recommends the Tempest II or Orions for heavier riders.

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That's a good point but I've had no issue with low spoke count wheels to date. Maybe I've just been lucky. I have a set of Rolfs with 18 in the rear which have been great as well as a set of Bontragers with 24. (Though I feel the Bontragers are crap even though no spokes have broken.) I also have a set of Velocity Deep Vs with 32 or 36 (I can't remember off hand) and I think they're great for training, but I was thinking I might like something I'd consider for racing too.

My Velocitys are on my tri bike, the bontragers are confined to the trainer, and I'd like to retire the Rolfs which are on my road bike.

I totally agree with your wheel weight comment, I'm not concerned with it.

I must be super hard on equipment because I've broken spokes (on older wheels) lots and I only weigh 150. :) But I use my road bike for everything.

Tempest IIs rule. Shoot me a PM if you want to buy a set (new). I've got the hookup.

I feel like I go through bearings quickly. I think I've been lucky with spokes (knock on wood) so far. But there are definitely some wheels, like my Bontragers, that feel mushy when I ride them. I hate descending with them so I don't ride them except on the trainer. I have a hunch that if I rode them more I'd likely have problems. (These are the cheapo Bontragers and they're a few years old. I don't know if this model is still made. I'm not trying to bash Bontrager as a whole.)