Twisted spokes don't actually have any advantage other than looking cool. In fact I'm pretty sure that they, as previously stated, reduce your wheels ability to handle torque without giving any benefit. As for cross patterns, the lower you go the less stiff and the less strong you get, so 4x is really stiff ride, but really strong, while radial is a really smooth "squishy" ride, but prone to spoke breakage due to poor load transference. I just rode my friends radial wheels and they're SUPER smooth and nice. I don't trust them though.