Originally Posted by
twocicle
I can only relate my perception of this occurring in certain conditions only. Our speed and handling aggressiveness is likely quite different than yours, so your experiences may vary.
Regarding wheel building:
To support your argument you would have to believe that spoke gauge plays no part in a wheel's lateral strength. However, a flattened aero spoke profile does indeed influence its side-load characteristics and can be simply demonstrated by bending an aero spoke fore/aft, then sideways... there is a substantial difference in stiffness between these to planes. In many cases with an aero spoke, you are looking a sub 1mm thickness vs. 2.3mm in the fore/aft profile. This is done by taking a round 15 gauge DB section and flattening it. Putting a spoke under tension does not increase its inherent lateral strength.
That statement is very much false for metal spokes. Under load, spoke tensions can vary by quite a lot during a duty cycle. Spinergy BPO spokes are something of an exception as they are much more elastic and result in a more uniform tension throughout the wheel during a duty cycle (ignoring other BPO characteristics in this discussion).
I would like to state right from the start that I am not a wheel builder at all. But I am not sure I agree with what you say.
You could lace a wheel with string. Which has absolutely no strength when you bend it. But if under tension would have enough strength to support the wheel.
Alternately, one way to test your theory on the bladed spoke would be to lace a wheel with the blades at a 90 degree angel to the direction of travel and see if there is more or less lateral movement.
However, I do believe that because spokes are used under tension, it does not matter which way they are laced. The strength of the wheel and feel of the wheel only varies with the ability of the spoke to withstand tension, and how much they actually stretch.
Just like the string above that has no lateral strength on its own, when it is under tension it can carry incredible load. Very much like the PBO spokes.
I think the reason that the bladed spokes feel different is because they do not have identical tension strength or stretch.
Please correct me if I am wrong. I do not claim to have any experience in this.