Originally Posted by
chrissmedley
so, there seems to be quite a bit of talk about radially-laced fronts and brakes. can someone provide some more solid information on the stress put on a radial wheel by brake calipers? in my mind, it makes absolute sense that brakes would slowly damage or untrue a radial front wheel yet, i see this set-up quite often and nobody seems to be complaining.
can anyone explain the ins and outs of this combination? or provide a link to someone reputable who can?
generally speaking, the only time this would become a problem would be if u locked up your front wheel and a sudden load was placed on the spokes. even then this is very minimal. the only time radial become a serious problem is with drive side applications and the use of disc brakes.
when you brake using disc you are slowing the wheel fromt he hub outward. that mean the rim and tire and spoke still have centrifugal force and inertia to cause the spoke damage.
using a rim brake, you are slowing that inertia down first and less torque is being applied to stop.
hope that helps