Edited for mistake.
Originally Posted by timcupery
Also, look at pretty much any wheel out there for reference on how this works.
I have seen almost every combination on "stock" wheels, because the factory doesn't care how they are laced up as long as they are built quickly. Although to their credit, there is very little difference in performance as far as I can tell. The factory wheels go out of true quickly, but that's probably because nobody really checks for proper spoke tension on those sets.
I was taught by an old racer how to build wheels, and he claimed that the rear wheels should have the trailing spokes on the inside for strength (actually makes sense) while the fronts are the opposite for aerodynamics (not so sure about that one). I don't know if there is an ounce of truth to that, but I built all of my wheels by that rule and they stayed true for years at a time. Of course, I upset him when I built my front racing wheels radial laced, but I never had a problem with those either.