Originally Posted by
John E
Please explain. I have the opposite opinion, i.e., that a high spoke count wheel with a more traditional 3X pattern, still wins for reliability and maximum strength to moment of inertia ratio.
One (probably the main) drawback of traditional lacing for rear wheels is the lower tension for the NDS spokes. In order to keep the NDS spokes from loosening and throwing the wheel out of true (or breaking), you need to crank up the DS tension (which can lead to cracks with some rims.) Especially with wider freewheels/cassettes. None of that will be new to you.
G3 is much like triplet lacing -- there are fewer NDS spokes, so each one can carry more tension without throwing off dish. And that, in turn, allows more reasonable tension on the DS spokes, so less chance of rim cracking.
I've been meaning to play around with triplet lacing at some point, but my 32/36-spoke wheels have worked well enough so far.