Scott Gordo wrote:

What's the point in demoing a wheel?

If you were trying to sell a wheel, how would you do it? (Beyond
hyperbole and a whole bunch of carbon tape?)

Chicks with big tits.

If you were considering purchasing a prebuilt set (not that you would),
wouldn't you like to know if it was going to rub your brake pads every
time you put some muscle into it?

My understanding is that things like brake rub are completely dominated
by frame flex. Maybe somebody with more expertise in the engineering
aspects of wheels can confirm this, but I would think that any wheel
which was even basically functional could be approximated as being
infinitely stiff in this regard.

The thing which really differentiates one wheel from another is the
quality of the build, i.e. durability. (Gordo, know you know this.)
Presumably, any brand-new wheel is going to be perfectly true, but
things like even spoke tension and stress relief are not going to be
obvious from a demo. Nor will Mavic's unfortunate tendency to have bits
of the weld break off inside the wheel and make a benign, but annoying
"click, click" with rotation of the wheel. But I digress. The bottom
line is that a demo tells you nothing about build quality. The only
think I can think of that a demo might shed light on, besides simply
weight, would be hub engagement.

Keep in mind that this is coming from a
handbuilt-32-3X-butted-stainless-spokes-with brass-nipples retrogrouch.
(Gordo, I know you also know this ;-).

And if you were Mavic, wouldn't you
want your customers to experience a perfectly tuned version of their
product?

Oh, totally! I'm sure they get all sorts of people coming back from
their demos raving about how "stiff" and "responsive" the wheels are,
which makes about as much sense as raving about how "round" they are.

The smart money is in staying back at the tent and talking to the
chicks with big tits.

CC