Weird spoke arrangements

"D.M. Procida" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I found a new bike shop in Cardiff yesterday, where they allowed me in
to have a nose around when they shouold have been closing up. Someone
was setting up a wheel, but I was intrigued to see that he'd done it
with the spokes in a radial pattern - all came straight out from the
centre. What's that all about?

Also, I've seen pictures of (rear) wheels with spokes in a traditional
overlapping pattern on one side, and radial on the other.

For answers go to:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

Pete

D.M. Procida said:

I found a new bike shop in Cardiff yesterday, where they allowed me in
to have a nose around when they shouold have been closing up. Someone
was setting up a wheel, but I was intrigued to see that he'd done it
with the spokes in a radial pattern - all came straight out from the
centre. What's that all about?

Also, I've seen pictures of (rear) wheels with spokes in a traditional
overlapping pattern on one side, and radial on the other.

Front wheels can always be built radially if they have a rim brake. It
saves the weight of two spokes and may have a slight aerodynamic edge,
as well as looking nice. The disadvantage is that few hub manufacturers
will warranty a hub for radial spoking - part of the hub flange can be
ripped off!

Rear wheels sometimes use radial spoking to try and solve some of the
caused by dishing. There is some debate over which side should be
radial. Sheldon Brown says the non-drive side, which seems logical,
whereas Tony Oliver says it should be the drive side (which requires the
hub shell to carry a lot of torque, but gives even spoke tensions). The
latter is definitely not suitable for anything other than a lightly
torqued wheel - possibly on a TT bike or a fixie, where there are no low
gears.

Reply to D.M. Procida

Quoted message said:

Is there no end to bicycle tweakery? Are cyclists worse than Linux
users?

Oddly enough, just yesterday I said to the GF that I intended to make
the new computer dual-boot with Linux, and she said "Well, that'll fit
in with the triker image, then..." Don't know what she means.

Late last year I had a look at the Windcheetah Hypersport, possibly
the sexiest machine on the road, and noticed the front wheels were a
radial/laced combo; something to do with braking/cornering forces, I
was told.

--
Mark, UK.
We hope to hear him swear, we love to hear him squeak,
We like to see him biting fingers in his horny beak.

in message
<[email hidden]>,

D.M. Procida (') said:

I found a new bike shop in Cardiff yesterday, where they allowed me in
to have a nose around when they shouold have been closing up. Someone
was setting up a wheel, but I was intrigued to see that he'd done it
with the spokes in a radial pattern - all came straight out from the
centre. What's that all about?

Mostly aesthetics. Radial front wheels are ever so slightly lighter, and
the guy who taught me wheel-building reckoned they were slightly less
springy. They definitely put more strain on the hubs and many hub
manufacturers explicitly won't guarantee the hub if you radially lace
the front wheel. I like radial fronts, but, as I say, mainly for
aesthetic reasons.

You cannot use a radially spoked wheel if you have a hub brake (drum or
disk) and you cannot radially spoke your driven wheel, for the obvious
reason that a radially spoked wheel cannot transmit torque from the hub
to the rim.

Quoted message said:

Also, I've seen pictures of (rear) wheels with spokes in a traditional
overlapping pattern on one side, and radial on the other.

This is a bit different. There may be an actual benefit to having
half-radial rear wheels. It's possible that they're stronger, but there
are Learned Arguments about this, and experts don't agree on which side
should be radial.

Quoted message said:

Is there no end to bicycle tweakery? Are cyclists worse than Linux
users?

Believe me, many cyclists _are_ Linux users. As Steve Wozniac said: 'All
the best people in life seem to like LINUX.'

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; It appears that /dev/null is a conforming XSL processor.

Simon Brooke said:

You cannot use a radially spoked wheel if you have a hub brake (drum or
disk) and you cannot radially spoke your driven wheel, for the obvious
reason that a radially spoked wheel cannot transmit torque from the hub
to the rim.

<ahem>

Halfords are selling BMX bikes with completely radially-spoked rear
wheels. There are a *lot* of spokes though - probably 72, although I
didn't bother to count them. I guess the bending load on each
individual spoke is so small that it works.

Simon Brooke [email hidden] opined the following...

Quoted message said:

You cannot use a radially spoked wheel if you have a hub brake (drum or
disk) and you cannot radially spoke your driven wheel, for the obvious
reason that a radially spoked wheel cannot transmit torque from the hub
to the rim.

A radially spoked wheel can transmit torque, but does so through "wind-
up" of the spokes. When you torque the hub, you literally twist it in
proportion to the rim, so that the spokes become tangetial <sp?>. This
wind-up is presumably not particularly efficient however.

Jon

"Zog The Undeniable" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:4131daf4.0@entanet...

Quoted message said:

Halfords are selling BMX bikes with completely radially-spoked rear
wheels. There are a *lot* of spokes though - probably 72, although I
didn't bother to count them. I guess the bending load on each
individual spoke is so small that it works.

Yebbut most are used by paperboys who enjoy the sensation of kneeing their
chins :-)

Pete