I heard a smash...
 

It sounded like someone threw a bottle at me. A second later my rear wheel felt "weird" so I thought that I might have run over a bottle. Turns out that smashing sound came from my wheel:

http://www.aplusbi.com/forums/ouch.jpg

I did the same thing to an old Normandy hub... except when the flange broke, it was 4 spokes.... just went 'pop' while honking a big gear up hill. Luckily, I was about 2 blocks from home and heading back in after a nice ride...

Wow, I've never seen anything like that before?! Is it like breaking a spoke, only four times worse?

hmm. methinks those hubs weren't designed for radial lacing.

I don't think the lacing patern has much to do with it. The flange just fatigued and snapped. The hub I broke was laced 3 across with 36 spokes - and also broke on the non-drive side.

I would say radial lacing has a lot to do with it... there is a reason that they don't recommend it on some wheels/hubs.

EDIT:

some info on the way these were laced:

Well.... a quicky search found the Tune website no longer available...we may now know why.....

Had it on a really old Shimano 600 hub, the wide flange type from the '80s. Had a crash, slightly tacoed the front wheel, and the flange cracked under the side load from the taco.

agree with Phatman,
Hub not designed for radial spoke pattern?
How many spokes?
This is from the Tune website ( www.tune.de )
flange design for radial lacing pattern and aero-bladed spokes (up to 28 hole)
- more spoke holes are for cross lacing only

They still offer the mig/mag hubs you might want to contact them
about this (if the correct lacing for hubs was used).

Marty

Last week someone posted a photo of a broken Hugi on roadbikereview.com. This week a broken Tune here. Also in a receint thread about hubs, Sheldon Brown voiced his strong opinion in favor of OE hubs, well actually, Shimano hubs.

I've been reviewing wheel info in anticipation of building a set of Campy compatable wheels for a new group I'm putting together. After Sheldon's comments I decided to stay OE and ordered some Campy hubs last night :). I'm not sure they are superior, but it's comforting to know they invented the wheel, so to speak, as far a bike parts go.

Yoshi.....That's some power stroke you have there.....

That is f-ed up!

Hang it on the wall and brag about leading out on the cobbles in Paris-Roubaix.

PJ

Same thing happened to a friend of mine who had a radially laced Nuke Proof hub. The funny thing is that the bike was in his bedroom and he was fast asleep when the hub exploded.

I concur, that's not a good candidate for a radially laced pattern. Regardless of published claims in manufacturers literature, the evidence you just provided proved it wrong.

DT240 hubs are made for radial lacing. Look how much more material is above the spoke elbow on the flanges.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ikes/DT240.jpg