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Old 07-23-07, 06:01 PM
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11.4
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Dura Ace high flange hubs are spun, not forged. Spinning is a technique whereby the metal is rotated on a lathe and a shallow, dull tool actually pushes the metal into place -- something like how your hands move clay on a potter's wheel. It removes many stresses and creates a very high quality piece of metal, much better than almost any CNC machining but not with the specific benefits of actual forging.

That being said, they aren't really supposed to be radially laced. I've worked to collect almost 180 high-end hubs that broke at the spoke holes from wheel stresses (all to study the actual issues around radial lacing) and the only case I've ever seen or even heard of where radial lacing was used on a broken high flange Dura Ace hub was where a car hit the wheel. It was pretty ugly and appeared as if a car wheel had actually driven over the wheel, so I wouldn't blame it on radial lacing. I actually have found very few cases of broken radially-laced wheels. Campy C-Record high flange hubs had a proclivity for it, but more because the metal was crappy and because the spoke holes were drilled too close to a flange edge that was itself radiused too much to save a couple grams. That whole era was not exactly Campy's high point in component quality. I've also seen low flange wheels break out (in 36-hole lacings, in particular) where several spokes in a row just tear loose like a perforation in a piece of paper and just unzip the whole side of the flange -- this comes about because there is so little metal between spoke holes and once one gives way, it takes the rest with them. But Dura Ace high flange hubs are pretty solid and unless you really abuse them while riding or in an accident, they should be OK. (By abuse, I mean hard jumps off curbs, major potholes, car accidents, etc. -- those will wreck almost any hub and radial-laced hubs are no exception.) If you want to abuse your equipment, expect it to break. This is a track forum, so I assume that you are building for track use -- in that use there is very little risk of a front wheel failure. There isn't any point in using radial lacing on a track rear.
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