Just came across this on small ads. Are wheels even stable with twisted spokes like this? I am not planning on getting that bike its just something i was wondering. Because for my non engineer mind this seems not trustworthy at all
by That_Tart_7318
Just came across this on small ads. Are wheels even stable with twisted spokes like this? I am not planning on getting that bike its just something i was wondering. Because for my non engineer mind this seems not trustworthy at all
by That_Tart_7318
6 Comments
Yup. I’ve built a few sets like that. Never had an issue.
There are some cool af patterns people make. Wheel building, if you go into the rabbit hole, can be a lot of fun.
There’s no improvement in this kind of pattern, but it also doesn’t really affect the wheel strength.
Safe enough.
It looks fancy and comes with some small disadvantages.
The entry angle of the spoke to the nipple is extremely increased, the spoke runs around a corner into the nipple. Shocks are dampened with a small delay. The spokes have to be plastically deformed during lacing and lose a bit of strength.
If one spoke cracks you have to replace at least two and it is a pain to replace.
But generally, it is not unsafe.
Yes , it’s exactly the plan to increase the stability and durability…this and several similar ways to build wheels are just out of focus nowadays because the quality of spokes has increased since then and it’s simply a higher effort which causes higher prices…in the cases of this bicycle I think the owner simply enjoys to provoke attention with this uncommon design….
It’s a very old way of lacing for the track to give rigidity to the wheel. Pretty much the same as soldering the crossing points of a regular laced wheel, makes the wheel have less flex.
Back in the 90’s (god I’m old!! 😩) I used to run my DH wheels like that. Now days for dh, it’s gone the opposite direction where they want a flexier wheel.
Thank you for all your answers, pretty interesting!