Rebuilding wheelset with bladed spokes
With climbing wheels in place, I'm turning my attention to wheels that I already have sitting around. I have a set of DA/CXP-30 wheels that are built up with regular straight gauge spokes, 24 hole front, 28 rear. They were stock on my Cannondale back in '98. Not light at all, not a great aero shape in the rim, but the deeper section is gonna be better through the air than my Open Pros. I've got a conversion cassette for the rear hub so I can run it on my Campy bike, and that's worked really well. I'm thinking about rebuilding them to make them more aero without giving up much stiffness. The rims are incredibly stiff on their own. But I know that bladed spokes a la CX-Rays will reduce the stiffness of a wheel. CUrrently, the lacing is 2 cross front and rear. Could I, at 190 pounds on the bike, rebuild these with CX-Rays, triple cross front and rear, and expect them to still be stiff enough for crits? I'd probably use them for crits and flat road races. The point of this exercise is twofold: First, I need another project after I rebuild my Open Pro rear wheel (longer story) and second I want a relatively aero racing wheelset that's still nice and stiff. Would something like DT's oval-ish spoke be a better idea for this project?