Eighteen Ninety Model

I have made a start on the bmx which needs to look realistic. I have started by making the wheel which for some reason always confuses me when putting the spokes together even though this is my 3rd one. It turned out nicely though which pleased me BUT i did use cyclinders for the spokes and rim which has meant the poly count has gone through the roof... This has concerned me a bit as i am pretty sure this is going to need animating and if so it cant stay like this. I did spend a long time messing about though as i am still trying to find a quick and easy yet pliable as booleans isn't any good for this. I know that using the chamfer vertex tool works well as shown on the pulley system i previously made but it can be hard to get it to look even all over so i branched into nurbs again. This is where i wasted a good few hours trying to figure out the trim tool and the fillet tool which i remember seeing in the tron bike tutorial i have. Anyway this all fell through as my head was starting to hurt and i went back to what i knew to save time and just to get on with it.