Originally Posted by
rpenmanparker
Actually you can make a good rear pattern out of 27 spokes and 36 holes. 9 radial spokes on the non-drive side and 18 on the drive side. Put each NDS spoke between a crossed pair of DS spokes. Leave an empty hole each set of the crossed pairs
What about the aerodynamic drag caused by boundary layer air flowing over an empty spoke hole instead of the smooth head of the spoke? That's probably 0.087 milliwatts of energy loss.