48-spoke cross ?

Carl Fogel said:

I was browsing these old bikes . . .

http://www.oldspokeshome.com/museum.php

And noticing that the highwheelers tend to be radial, not tangent,
when I saw this tangent-spoked mini-high-wheeler, an 1892 Crytpo with
internal gearing to make up for the small wheel:

http://www.oldspokeshome.com/images/user/museum0000000002.jpg

http://i7.tinypic.com/6ce252a.jpg

I count 48 spokes in a dozen 4-spoke groups, but I don't know if
there's a simple and obvious way to figure out what the crossing
number is from a picture like this that doesn't show the hub detail.

....

Quoted message said:

http://www.eriding.net/media/vintage_bicycles.shtml

http://www.eriding.net/media/photos/transport/vintage_bikes/040930_cb...

http://www.eriding.net/media/photos/transport/vintage_bikes/040930_cb...

What I'm wondering is whether there's some simple way to look at such
profile pictures of bikes in photo galleries and calculate the spoke
crossings.

Simple? not if you can't make out which spokes lie on which side of
the wheel. You can follow every fourth spoke from the rim back to the
hub and note its intersection with a reference crossing spoke. But I
can tell you from experience that the first bike has cross-five lacing
based on the flange diameter and the distance from the flange outwards
to the last spoke crossing. The first crossing of a highly tangential
pattern always hides behind the flange.

Note that cross-eight lacing on a 72 spoke wheel is the same as
cross-4 on a 36 spoke wheel (in its degree of tangency).

Chalo

Quoted message said:

I was browsing these old bikes . . .

http://www.oldspokeshome.com/museum.php

And noticing that the highwheelers tend to be radial, not tangent,
when I saw this tangent-spoked mini-high-wheeler, an 1892 Crytpo with
internal gearing to make up for the small wheel:

http://www.oldspokeshome.com/images/user/museum0000000002.jpg

I count 48 spokes in a dozen 4-spoke groups, but I don't know if
there's a simple and obvious way to figure out what the crossing
number is from a picture like this that doesn't show the hub detail.

Here's an enlargement:

http://i7.tinypic.com/6ce252a.jpg

Note the gap at 7 o'clcok where the solid tire has shrunk with age.

For comparison or testing theories, here's a circa 1888 St. George's
Engineering "New Rapid" model high wheeler with cross-8 lacing:

http://i2.tinypic.com/5xq520p.jpg

It's the brown (not red or blue) model about half-way down this page:

http://www.eriding.net/media/vintage_bicycles.shtml

http://www.eriding.net/media/photos/transport/vintage_bikes/040930_cbr_mp_his_trans_vb_517.jpg

http://www.eriding.net/media/photos/transport/vintage_bikes/040930_cbr_mp_his_trans_vb_518.jpg

What I'm wondering is whether there's some simple way to look at such
profile pictures of bikes in photo galleries and calculate the spoke
crossings.

The Crypto with 48 spokes looks like four-cross from the spoke angles.
That's appropriate to a 48. Your eight cross has more spokes, but again
at a reasonable spoke angle. 2x24,28, 3x32,36, 4x40,48
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971