Front Wheel question: 28/14-15 2x or 32/14-17 3x

On Sep 21, 7:55*am, jim beam wrote:
Qui si parla Campagnolo wrote:



On Sep 20, 8:06 am, jim beam wrote:
Qui si parla Campagnolo wrote:

On Sep 19, 2:49 pm, RS wrote:
I"m having a set of wheels built using Open Pro rims and DuraAce 7700
hubs. I have both a 28 and 32 hole front hub. I'm 185-190lb. Will a 32
hole front wheel, 3x, using DT revolution (14-17) spokes be a strong enough
wheel? Better to go 28H/2x with DT Competition 14-15?
thanks, Rick
Why not 32 hole and 14/15, laced 3 cross? I know it will be about 50
grams heavier than the others, but stronger and that 50 grams is only
a small part of your 92,000 gram or so riding package. Seriously, why
do people make wheels 'just strong enough? Those teeny additional
grams will make for a more reliable, worry free front wheel.
when is the last time you had a 28 spoke wheel fatigue or buckle? my
lardy ass seems unable to break my 24 spoke front, 28 spoke rear mavic
cosmos unless i ride through a pothole in the dark. and more spokes
wouldn't stop those rims getting bashed in that situation. likewise, my
shimano r540's have only 16 spokes front and rear. no failures and no
trueness problems so far.

We see underbuilt wheels that need truing all the time. More spokes,
thicker spokes, stronger wheel. My point is why try to save a few
insignificant grams and purposely design a wheel that is weaker than
another when the only 'penalty' is 50 grams??

I have a wheelset for building next friday, for a big guy, laced 36/3
cross on a CXP-33 rim(good), but 32 2 cross for the front. Reason to
'save a little weight'. Weight saved is the weight of ONE 224mm spoke.
Also alloy nipples, again to save less than an ounce of weight but
significantly weaker wheel.......

We see many 16 spoke wheels for service as well. 16 spokes, big, heavy
rim but still not as reliable as a 32 spoke, decent rim, wheel.

but that's not my experience. *both my sets of low spoke count wheels
have been completely trouble free under my 205-210# load. *conversely, i
have in the past had endless troubles with hand built 32 spoke wheels.

my conclusion is that it's down to the build quality and making sure
spokes are seated well, etc. *evidently my pre-builts have been done
right, just like your hand-builts are done right. *but it is /not/
logical to conclude that because your wheels are done right that
pre-builts are done wrong.

to qualify that though, i went to great lengths to ensure my wheels had
not been "helped" by my lbs. *i have had friends, weighing less than i
do, with identical wheels and constant trueness problems, and without
exception, these wheels had been monkeyed with at their lbs. *in one
case, my friends wheels were so bad, he was in the shop with them every
couple of weeks. *eventually, i took them home, trued them properly and
he's had no more problems, but my point is that reliability and low
spoke count are /not/ counter to each other. *go ahead and argue that
they are less monkey-tolerant by all means, but to say they're
intrinsically bad is wrong.

I'm around #250 these days, but I did not get rid of my 28-spoke
Wheelzinnabox because of trueness problems, but because of the huge
amount of drag on the crappy hubs.

I've been very happy with my 36h Aeroheads (with OC rear) with 2006
Centaur hubs (last year of loose balls). I'll ride off an occasional
curb with no ill effects, and the hubs are such that when the bike is
on the wall rack, I give the crank one quick downstroke, and the wheel
will coast for 2-3 minutes. I've got a couple sets of these, for my
Guerciotti and my Schwinn Peloton. Love 'em.