Thread: wheel lacing!
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Old 02-27-13 | 02:55 AM
  #17  
dabac
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Joined: Mar 2008
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Well, I dunno. The thing you need to keep in mind is that sometimes there's no practical difference between "good enough" and "better".

But sometimes there is.

Radial, heads-in on a front makes for a measurably laterally stiffer wheel at the same order of magnitude that if you could show the same amount of aero, or drivetrain improvement you'd be a hero.

I'm not making any claims about how many seconds it shaved off my mile time, but going to a radial, heads-in front finally allowed me to have a nice snug brake adjustment w/o getting brake rub when honking. Peace of mind. Nice.

So maybe not many riders would actually gain a measurable benefit from it, but apart from the extra care needed for the build, where's the downside?
And the build isn't bad. It's advisable to use hubs rated for radial lace(not that I did), and threadlock may be called for. Not exactly a mountain of considerations that have been added.

And there are advantages to half-radial rears as well.
Heads-out radial on the DS will play merry hell with spoke tension balance, but is a godsend to people prone to jamming their chain between cassette and spokes. Last race last season I stopped to help a pal who'd done just that. I thought his cussing would strip the bark off the trees around. He'd be quite happy to trade some expected life for an easy road side fix. Yes, he'd had it happen to him before. Yes, I know "keep the bike properly adjusted and it won't happen" and all that. But for some it does happen, and there's a way to make it far less serious - Why not use it? If you can't remove the cause, remove the consequences.
But again, if that kind of accident don't happen to you, then mitigating the consequences obviously won't be an advantage to you either. And good ol' 3X will do just fine.

Heads-out radial on the NDS will improve spoke tension balance a tad, as well as reduce torque slackening. For some, this will improve wheel life considerably, for others it won't matter. And if what you have is good enough, then again you won't have anything to gain from going to a potentially more durable wheel.

It's like buying stuff from a vending machine. It doesn't care what else there is in your wallet. As long as you have enough for what you want, having more won't get you anything better.
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