Linkwheel bad?

First of all linkwheel is the new 'sexy' name' for mini net - they are the exact same thing.

Yes there's a penalty for reciprocal linking on your own IPs so use different IPs or web 2.0 sites = linkwheel/mininet

Interlinking is tough job ... All your mini sites or blogs or web 2.0 properties need to be high ranking themselves.

Lets say for example. If you own 50 mini PR2-5 sites talking about iphones. Each having at least 500 backlinks each.

Your main money site is going to be very very hard to beat.