rpenmanparker, Where are your results to make such a claim? No empirical or theoretical explanation supports such a claim.
Originally Posted by
rpenmanparker
Okay, stiffer, stronger wheel, but why more durable against stresses that don't exceed the strength characteristics of the wheel?...
This statement doesn't have any foundation in engineering. More flex causes fatigue, fatigue leads to failure. A stiffer wheel flexes less and is more resistant to permanent deflections. Telling a Clyde to use double butted spokes so the wheel will "better" is wrong and not rooted in any engineering principals. The simplest engineering explanation is the engineering principal of superposition. A wheel is a linear system, superposition applies. Others have run computer simulation to get the same result.
Superposition: google is your friend:
Superposition principle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia