Are link wheels considered Black Hat?

Are link wheels considered Black Hat?

I must admit in the past we have implemented link wheels for clients. However, in 2012 with all the updates in the Google algorithm is this still a viable link building strategy?

It seems to us that Google in time if not already will recognize link wheels. They take so much work and time to build and we do not want to start building them if it is going to come back and hurt our clients in the end. If the link wheels are from trusted neighborhood of sites they seem to still work and be effective. We do not recommend using them any more and would also recommend going back and breaking the last link in the wheel if you closed the wheel on previous link wheels you created.

This is a topic could talk alot about but to make a long story short we do not think link wheels are a good idea any longer even in small moderation.