It turns out that the FEA for a bicycle wheel was done before 1903:
[After an impressive page of equations for an 8-spoke bicycle wheel]
"As a particular instance let W [weight] = 1000 pounds . . . Then the
stress for all the spokes except [lowermost spoke] is 76 pounds
tension, and that in [lowermost spoke] is 924 pounds compression; also
the stress in each segment of the rim is about 98 pounds compression.
It thus appears that the vertical spoke under the hub carries nearly
all the load as a compressive stress, and that as the wheel slightly
turns this is turned into a small tensile stress."
--"A Text Book on Roofs and Bridges," 5th ed., 1903, Merriman & Jacoby
p. 149-150
http://books.google.com/books?id=kBM5AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA149&dq=%22bicycle+wheel+with+stiff+spokes%22&as_brr=1&ei=yMguR4_UIZ3epQKkr63vCQ#PPA149,M1
or http://tinyurl.com/yrqx6d
Cheers,
Carl Fogel