Originally Posted by
laura*
The good news is that you only need to take the wheel half apart to fix it. Just undo the outer spokes (ie heads in) and reinstall them not as far around the rim. All the inner spokes can stay attached.
Hmmm, the next time I'm at the bike co-op, I'll have to find 36x3 and 36x4 wheels and look at the patterns...
I probably build more 4x wheels than most and deal with a lot of vintage English bicycles where they often have a 40 spoke / 4 cross rear wheel and a 32 spoke 3 cross front wheel.
The key to identifying a 3x and 4x is that the interlaced spokes on a 4x sit much closer to the hub because of the tighter angles while a 3x has it's interlaced spokes closer to the midpoint between the hub and the rim.
Most people do not see that many 4x wheels and they are uncommon on modern bicycles as most are 3x... Kuwahara used 36/4 wheels on their 1980's MTB's and my daughter's Norco road bike has a 36/4 rear wheel and a 36/2 up front.
This is a 40 4 cross wheel that I re-built for a 1946 Rudge roadster...
