Radial lacing is preferable for low spoke count front wheels because it makes up for some of the stiffness that is lost from removing spokes. Its also very easy to build a radial laced wheel. The only problem with radial is the additional stress on the hub flange. But with fewer spokes, its less of a problem. As a general rule, if the hub isn't specifically rated for radial, then use 1x...its almost as stiff as radial but easier on the hub.

Never radial lace a rear wheel, of course.

my road wheels are 20/24 with 30mm kinlins, aerolites radial front/2x rear, on the relatively narrow dt240s campy hubs...and at ~175-180lbs i find them plenty stiff. a fixed rear wheel is stiffer yet, with no dish.

one quirk sometimes mentioned with the kinlins is soft braking surfaces. several mentions of one-ride & chewed up. i used fresh pads when i started using my rims, and only use salmon kool stop. after a lot of (fair weather) miles, you can still see the original machining marks on my brake surfaces. make what you want of this...

qft

Radial lacing the non-drive side of a road rear is okay though, yes?

Many wheel manufacturers like Zipp use radial lacing for the nds on rear road wheels, because there is a lot of dish, so the right flange is close to the plane of the rim and most of the torque is transferred to the rim on that side. It is not desirable on track hubs, where the flanges are equidistant, and the left side can contribute significantly to torque transfer.

you can just replace your current dp-18 rims with some lighter rims and reuse your spokes and hubs. You should be able to just swap them out for kinlin xr300. that'll drop you about 400-500g at the furthest point of your rotation for only like $50-75.

FYI Zipps are now laced radially on the drive side.

wheel manufactures seem to go back and forth between redial NDS and DS. NDS radial with the spokes on the inside of the flange reduces dish a little. You can also buy off-center rims to reduce dish

Correct. When I bought my 303 and 404 road wheels, they were laced 2X on the ds and radial on the nds. Now they are crossed on the nds, and radial on the ds, which I don't understand. Anyways, I won't buy them, and would get something from Easton instead.