Originally Posted by
Team Fab
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.
Hopefully someone with a real engineering background will chime in on this but my layman's understanding is that you are generally correct about the round spokes possibly having more tension strength and therefore making stiffer wheel.
I think that lacing pattern does matter when considering the twisting motion caused by the payment under acceleration on the rear wheel or braking of a disk brake wheel. This is why you never see radial rear wheel drive side lacing. Likewise 3x would tend to resist braking force on a disk brake wheel better than a 2x lacing.
Also the bracing angle of the spokes on a widely spaced hub would seem to allow for the same spokes to better resist side loads. Luckily road wheels have very little side loads to resist even when cornering due to the lean of the bike.