Hello all, After reading through the posts, I need to chime in to correct some mis-statements and offer some product updates. Firstly, regarding spokes. We hear this debate regarding the strength of black or silver spokes a lot. DT Swiss spokes are blackened by a chemical process which does not use a significant amount of heat. I think someone pointed out that you can't anodize steel and that is correct (check out this link to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anodizing) . The blackening process can affect the breaking point of a spoke but is only noticeable when using low quality of stainless steel. You wouldn't see this on a DT spoke because we use only a very high quality of stainless steel. Generally you see this issue on machine built wheels, (most likely with low quality spokes) that haven't been built to the correct tension. In this case, the low quality material has been weakened by the blacking process and when the improperly tensioned spoke is loaded and unloaded during riding you get a broken spoke. Basically, if you use a spoke manufactured from a high grade of stainless steel and then tensioned correctly you shouldn't have any problem. Here's a hint--if their cheap they are probably made from heap material! Secondly, regarding rims. The EX5.1d rim was designed as an All Mtn rim, which is stated on our website and in our catalog Many of the DH pros run it because it is very light (500 grams) and gets them to the podium--DT wheels saw somewhere around 31 out of 40 WC podiums in 2008 with many of those on EX5.1d's--I think that says a lot for the rim. The comment that Santa Cruz went through 75 rims at Mont Saint Anne a few years ago is pure BS. I was there and I was working to support the team. More realistically they probably went through about 15-20 rims for the week and believe it or not this is pretty typical for the pro DH guys because they like to use perfectly clean rims for their race runs. For 2009 the FR6.1d will change to the FR600 which has a newly designed profile which allows for more material where it's needed at the sidewalls, and also gets a harder alloy. The EX5.1d will also get this harder alloy going into 2009. While it's no secret that the FR6.1d rims are softer than optimum for some riders, there was an initial design reason for that. We don't anodize any of our welded rims because we found during testing that anodized rim were more susceptible to cracking and catastrophic failures than non anodized rims (which obviously dent easier.) A positive aspect of a softer rim is that you get less pinch flats--last year I counted 15 flats at the DH Final at Mont Saint Anne--none on DT rims. We do make some harder anodized rims such as the mid-range E540 which is also used on the E2200 wheelset (28mm wide and 540g) and the upcoming E530 rim (28mm wide and 530g). We will also have a new 32mm anodized FR/DH rim coming in the future. That's it--thanks to everyone for their comments and feedback--we appreciate it. Best regards Kenny Roberts North (and South) American Sales and Mktg Mngr