is radial spoking bad?
 

i keep seeing bmx bikes w/ radial spoking and not many with regular spoking, is radial better or is crossed better?or is it just a fashion thing?

It's a bit of both. Some road bikes have radial spokes to save weight. Those 48 spoke radial BMX wheels
I think are for cosmetic reasons. The hub puts more stress on the spokes when it is laced radially, but
various people think its worth it for different reasons.

Every spoke is shorter, so it is lighter. As far as strenght.... it doesn't have to be strongest... just strong enough. Atleast, that was the reason I was given by MANY people back in the early 90's when I was racing and saw a ton of radial fronts, and crossed rears.

It's terrible for side to side force.

Actually, radially laced wheels are very strong laterally, which is why many flatlanders tend to use them. However, the problem is, because they are not crossed, the spokes stress is put on it near the hub and is not distributed around the wheel as much, so if you were to do a massive drop to flat, you would stretch some while compressing others and most likely get a real bad hop in it. Also, you need higher spoke tension, which puts more stress on the hub and can cause cracking and breaking.

Found this little blip about it on some website

"Here the hub resists translational movements - but presents little resistance to small perturbations which rotate the rim about it's own axis while holding the hub still....

Such a layout would be especially bad in a rear driving wheel - or in a wheel equipped with a disc brake."

has anyone ever twisted the spokes

seen it. they break under pressure. like jumps.

i never had one break and im 200+ lbs but it feels like it stiffens the whole bike in the bowls.

radial patterns also put more stress on the rim and are weaker in cornering(they flex to much)

It's terrible for just about everything except aesthetics, and even that is a stretch.

They are more stiff laterally, thats why only flatlanders use them.
Flatlanders dont need to worry about "massive drops to flat" so that is not an issue.
Also they look real nice.

With radial lacing you have to use more tension on the spokes and they can come lose with time.
NOT recommended for any type of jumping or wheels with disk brakes.
Also only recommended for front wheels on road bikes.
But if your going to just cruise around town, its OK.

if you ever look at a rear road wheel with a radial patter its only on the left side cause the drive side (right) has to have more strength because of the forces acted on the wheel from pedaling

what about crowfoot lacing

No point to crowsfoot on a BMX.

yeah true but that does look funky, i think thats all it would be useful for. i 4 crossed my spokes, but i do have big hubs and deep rims