Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 5,559
Likes: 53
From: The 'Wack, BC, Canada
Bikes: Norco (2), Miyata, Canondale, Soma, Redline
A radial front is one thing since the spokes only support the weight loading. At least with a rim brake. A semi radial rear as discussed earlier I like the idea of since you've still got the tangential spokes to suck up the torque. And the heads out sets up the NDS with a little steeper angle. All good.
But a radial disc or drive wheel isn't a good idea at all.
It's from looking at the loading geometry of the spokes. I'd have to draw up some charts to show you but it comes down to the torque multiplication due to the angles involved. A tangental load is running near 90 from the axle to the hub hole and then to the spoke. A radial wheel is running a zero angle that under torque is going to flex to a measurable but small angle. The leverage angles the torque is working with are acting to multiply the resulting tension load on the spokes to many more times what they are required to endure with a tangential setup. Also since the radial angle is zero (as for inline) the multiplying factor is infinite at first and only comes down as the hub torques around within the lacing patter to produce a small tangential angle and the spoke takes up that extra load.
So even if the spokes CAN handle the locads of a pure radial laced rear wheel there is going to be some windup and release in the all radial system rather than a crisp and far more flex free link in the tangential setup between the hub and the tire contact patch.
Basically if you lace up your drive side radially then you're setting up a situation where the torque has a lot stronger leverage ratio and the spokes are going to see a tensile buildup many times more than they would in a regular tangential arrangement. How much? I'm not sure without doing some serious head scratching and would need some numbers to play with. But I have no doubt that it would be very significant.