Quote Originally Posted by sundial View Post
Well, I chatted with my LBS and it seems I'm not going to be upgrading my rims anytime soon. Turns out that if I go tubeless, the rims will be lighter but the weight of the tubeless beasts will put me back to almost where I was with my original equipment--Specialized/Alex RHD rims and Fast Track DC tires.

OK, so maybe I just need to accept I'll be a choo choo train on hills.
As much as I love to support my LBS, have you looked online? My boyfriend got a set of CrossMax wheels for dirt cheap online, lightly used. Many shops will build up spare hubs and rims and sell them on ebay or through forum classifieds just to get rid of them.

I totally agree that lighter wheels can make all the difference. After I swapped the boat anchors off of my hardtail and had a set of wheels built up, it was like a new bike.