Originally Posted by
LarDasse74
If the OP is set on building a wheel with fewer spokes, why not just build a 16 spoke wheel instead of a 24 spoke wheel? A one-cross 16 spoke wheel using half of the holes in the rim and half of the holes in the hub? (insert one spoke, skip one hole, insert one spoke...).
A 16 spoke wheel is way weaker than a 24 spoke triplet. The 16 spoke would have 8 spokes with marginally adequate tension, and only 8 spokes that were fully tensioned. A 24 spoke triplet has adequate tension in all the spokes.
The more I think about this the more I like the triplet. My main objection was that you probably couldn't ride a triplet with one broken spoke, but you can always carry a spare.
em