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Old 04-14-10 | 05:04 PM
  #42  
NoReg
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 5,115
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I love the idea of that, but the reality is the standard spoke pattern works just fine if properly built. Spokes don't really mater all that much, what matters is wheel build and spoke to hub fit. Brand or type is way down the list, for the first few hundred thousand miles.

Other versions of the half radial idea are wheels built with thinner spokes on the non-drive side. Or one side straight one side butted.

Stress relieving spokes is a good method to lengthen spoke life, there are a lot of methods. Start with cold setting heads gently setting the heads in the hub like a finishing nail. Mak sure the spokes are bent to the right angle over the rim. Take parallel pairs of spokes and squeeze them till you hear some shifting. put the wheels hub down on a carpet or board and lean fairly heavily on opposite sides of the rim, as if putting a stiff lid on a garbage can. Do this all the way around and on both sides. You should hear the spokes pop free of the rim. I think sheldon had a method of using pry bars or something. This is part of the process of getting spokes up to full reliable tension and reducing fatigue failures at the hub.

Another thing that is supposed to wear out spokes is that people thread them on certain hubs so that the bend is in a radiused hole. Some hubs have no counter sinks, some have counter sinks on one side only. On those hubs it is bad to put the bend where it exist the counter sunk side, it should dig itself a channel on the sharp looking side. That said, some of the fancy hubs I have all CNC machined etc... have counter sinks both sides so it can't be all that terrible (advice assumes alloy hubs).
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