Originally Posted by
nwcdr200
This may constitute a new thread entirely, but from what I've heard the stiffness of newer low-spoke rims largely makes up for the low spoke count, but no FE analyses to back that up here, sorry. My own personal, underexperienced, probably underinformed advice would be to stay above 24/28 spoke count front/back, but that's just what I would be comfortable with building myself.
I'm a heavy guy, so it makes me nervous to ride a 24 spoke wheel. Using a stiffer, deep section rim definitely makes fewer spokes possible, but I'm concerned that the deep section is not much stiffer laterally, and that could lead to a folding failure. I also don't understand if it's reasonable to use fewer spokes on the rear wheel. The total possible load under braking on the front wheel is much greater then possible load on the rear wheel, and the lateral load on the front wheel is probably greater as well. Maybe the rear wheel needs more spokes because half of them are undertensioned, but I'd like to see some real analysis of that.
em