I saw some mention of Rolf's paired spoke patent in the archives (most
recently Jobst), but I was looking at the patent today and found that
it doesn't even apply to production Rolf wheels. Previous mentions of
the patent talked about how prior art trumped it (Lovelace, 1890). This
isn't quite right because the Rolf patent is not for paired spoking
alone, but for a strange invention where they have some spokes coming
radially out of the center of the hub.
So they've got the now-ubiquitous pairs evenly spaced around the hub
and rim, then these centerline spokes that go out to the rim
symmetrically in between two pairs. Here's an image from the patent
(there are 3 pairs of spokes and 3 solo centerline spokes -- for an
interesting 9-spoke wheel):
http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/1944/rolfpatent9bm.jpg
The patent can be reviewed here:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...44&RS=05931544
If that link doesn't work, look for pat # 05931544 (obtained from the
Rolf Prima site) here:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm
The purpose of the invention was to eliminate front end shimmy, which
they claim it does (umm, riiiiight).
Needless to say, none of the Rolf wheels being produced feature this
centerline spoke set, just the conventional pairs. Rolf mentions other
paired spoke patents as Prior Art, noting that they don't have the
centerline spokes.
So, Rolf is waving this patent around like it makes their wheels
special, but they don't actually use any of their protected technology
in their products.
As others have said, these wheels offer nothing more than high-fashion.
LAME.
What's even funnier that a fellow in another forum pointed me to, is
that FSA does have centerline spoked wheels, but they aren't paired.
LMAO.
http://www.fullspeedahead.com/fly.as...oduct&taxid=49
I've learned a lot about wheels in the last year. Here's my summary of
these wheels:
http://www.borked.us/attention_whore3.jpg