Originally Posted by John E
Sorry, but for the typical rider, I see no advantage whatsoever to radial, half-radial, or reduced-count spoke patterns. I build all of my wheels 3X, with either 32 or 36 DT spokes each.
I tend to agree. I don't claim to be an expert on wheel building, but just from physics point of view, it just doesn't make sense. Rev.Chuck, a member of this forum who has pretty good experience wheel building said else where in the forum that he could build a wheel cheaper and lighter with traditional 3 cross lacing than the aero, fewer spoked, radial laced, bladed spoked wheel.
I'll wait and see next few years, if people will still be using radial laced wheels. Only it takes to change the trend is to have one big rider in the Tour de France, breaking the front wheel spokes all at once, make a nasty spill, caused by the hard braking on steep hill.