Shimano R500 or Alex ALX-295 - Which Are Better? I have a set of Shimano R500 wheels on my current road bike, but have just upgraded bikes; the new bike comes with the Alex ALX-295 wheelset (they come on a Specialized Roubaix). Lots of the roads have poor surfaces, so I need a set of wheels that is pretty strong. (I have read some stuff about the spokes on the Alex wheels breaking.) Due to the poor roads, I use Slime inner tubes - I got my first puncture after only about 60 miles!

The new bike has a different (better) cassette on, so if there isn't really any difference between the wheelsets, then I'd prefer to not have to swap it all over! In fact, I would only want to swap them over if there is a reasonable difference; I'm not a very experienced rider (yet!), so if the difference would only be noticeable to someone really good, then I'd prefer to not have to swap it all over! :)

Any advice as to which I should use would be most appreciated!

Thanks! =D
Spokes on any wheels can break ... really comes down to how well they are built, the weight they have to carry, i.e., carrying more weight than they are designed for and the type of riding they are exposed to. 

The Shimano WH-R500 wheels are lower specification wheels and I suspect the Alex ALX-295 are much the same.  That said I believe the Shimano wheels are about 100 grams lighter than the Alex rims.

Personally if you are happy on the Shimano wheels you could swap them over, or if you prefer say have the Alex rims checked for trueness at a decent bike shop, but I suspect either way you are not going to change much if at all the bike's overall handling characteristics or "rideability" with changing these wheels around.

In the past I rode with Shimano WH RS 10 rims on a Giant CRX 1. These wheels would be similar to the WH-R500 and I did a good job of breaking spokes and cracking the rims until I got a wheel properly built.