Alloy:Campagnolo/Fulcrum, Token, Shimano, Vittoria(discontinued)
Carbon: Deer Cycles, Caden & Hunt
Any other?

"Triplet"?
As in a traditional 3 cross lacing?

"Triplet" is a lacing pattern in which there are twice as many spokes on one side of the wheel as the other. The main reason for doing this is to reduce the DS/NDS tension difference: cross-laced rear wheels often require around double the tension on the DS as the NDS, and since you can only use so much DS tension, the NDS tension is forced to be pretty low (and is therefore a fatigue risk). By using double the spokes on the DS, the necessary NDS tension can be very similar to the DS tension, so nothing ends up undertensioned.

Obviously you need very specific combinations of rim and hub to make this work: the rim's hole count must be a multiple of 3, and you're using a standard hub, you basically need a hub drilled for 4/3rds as many holes as the rim. With commonly-available parts, this pretty much means that you're using a 24H rim on a 32H hub. Or, if you're particularly adventurous, you might use a 36H rim on a 48H hub.
Triplet-specific hubs - with twice as many holes on one flange as the other - are a thing that has occasionally been made, as well.

Bitex makes a triplet hub. You can build your own wheels using that.

I'm rebuilding my triplet wheel and am having a carbon rim made with 16:8 angled spoke holes. I haven't had any issues with the 24 vertical holes I have now, but the wheel manufacturer recommended the angled holes, so I'll give it a shot. Only downside is that this rim must now forever be laced with a 16:8 pattern.

Campy/Fulcrum has triplet on carbon and aluminum rimmed wheels. The Campy wheels have a more obvious grouping of 7 sets of 3 spokes.

https://www.campagnolo.com/US/en/Whe...acing_bicycles

Campag refers to it as “G3” lacing

I love the idea of triplet wheels, but wonder if they'll go extinct due to disc brakes.

I’ve seen it used on disc front wheels

Every rim I've ever built in to a wheel has alternating holes offset to either side of the rim centerline, is that difference just not a big deal with this lacing pattern or am I misinterpreting something?

27 spokes on 36 hole hubs and rims. That should work too, no?

I've built two sets of triplet laced wheels and have a third on the back burner. My first triplet rear was a H Sons sl42. The spoke holes were ever so slightly offset. Much less than other rims I've seen. It laced up fine and rides without any issues but I'd have preferred the spoke holes be drilled straight or drilled for triplet lacing. My second was a Kinlin 380. It's drilled straight. It worked out perfectly. I have a third in the works for my wife. A Kinlin XR19W. It's also drilled straight.

The DS/NDS spoke tensions come out at less than 10% difference. It really works well.

Ah, I could see that. Hub shells are no longer so delicate that twisting would be a problem.

Significant offset and/or angled spoke holes won't work. You either need the drilling to match or vertical, centerline holes as already mentioned.

Triplet is still used front and rear on Campy/Fulcrum front and rear disc brake wheels. The front then must have crossed spoke lacing. On rim brake front wheels, radial lacing is used.

Shimano does it on their deeper rims, they call it OptBal or something.

These wheels I bought are 16/21 too.

I think Shimano has been doing it for quite a while. I've got some old 7800 and R560 models that are 21 spoke 2:1 lacing on the rear.

DT Swiss and Swisside do it on their ARC/Hadron rim brake wheels for the rear.

You could also get this hub: https://www.blackcatwheels.ch/p/shop...p188889980&m=1

The geometry is optimized for triplet, unlike with Bitex's 8:16 hub. Pretty light too. I'm curious as to whether this guy is still active lol.

For rims, afaik any 24H rim with sufficient spoke angle tolerance will probably suffice? I bet Light Bicycle could do something special if you asked.

Looks like they use Bitex hubs. What is your NDS flange distance? Is it the same as standard hubs?

I'm pretty sure these aren't Bitex hubs.


Ben, the bloke who runs Caden, told me they're made to his design, I think he said by a German mob.

Those look solid. Great option. I just saw bitex hubs on their website

A problem with these triplet laced rims is that you would not be able to replace a failed rim? Interested in Fulcrum or Shimano aluminum ones.

Why not?

Availability

Campy/Fulcrum both sell replacement rims. Unless the need is due to crash damage, I'd just buy a new wheelset, many years later.

The only time I ever ruined rims was due to a car hitting me. I and another rider got T-boned by a car. Both of my wheels got tacoed. The driver's car insurance paid me many times the cost of new wheels.
-

That's not a problem of triplet wheels specifically, lots of things are harder to come by these days.

P.S. Especially in the world of rim-brake 650B, rims have come and gone out of production before you know it, so I learned to buy spares long before I need them. It's also good to be flexible on the make/model if you can match the ERD to something else.