Originally Posted by DiabloScott
Really ... ? How do you explain hubs laced radially on the drive side and crossed on the non-drive side? They seem to work just fine.
The drive side is winding up under pedaling, allowing torque transfer on both sides. This should tell you that wind-up isn't a huge problem. After all, most penny farthings are radially spoked and survive reasonably well, although metal fatigue gets noticeable after the first 100 years or so.
Nowadays, this set-up is used on large diameter hub shells, reducing wind-up.
By the way, to those people worrying about spokes temporarily completely detensioning under impact, you need to tighten your spokes.