cross spokes?

Friend is building a rear wheel. Has a rim with a flat base, and the spoke
holes are offset left/right like normal. He's wondering if it's worth
crossing the spokes a the rim end (ie LH hub - RH rim) in order to give a
larger bracing angle.

What thinks?

cheers,
clive

Clive George wrote:

Friend is building a rear wheel. Has a rim with a flat base, and the spoke
holes are offset left/right like normal. He's wondering if it's worth
crossing the spokes a the rim end (ie LH hub - RH rim) in order to give a
larger bracing angle.

What thinks?

If the wheels are of normal spoke count , and the spoke holes are not
canted at all, it might be a good idea. The main concern arises from
having the spoke change angle where it enters the nipple, due to the
nipple being constrained in the opposite orientation.

A 26" or 700c wheel laced to a hub with flange spacing of less than
about 70mm won't have extreme spoke angles in any case.

Chalo

Clive George wrote:
Friend is building a rear wheel. Has a rim with a flat base, and the spoke
holes are offset left/right like normal. He's wondering if it's worth
crossing the spokes a the rim end (ie LH hub - RH rim) in order to give a
larger bracing angle.

What thinks?

cheers,
clive


while good in theory, it's almost impossible to execute in practice as
all but the cheapest crappiest rims are drilled for conventional spoke
exit angles. the best you'll find in practice is something like the
shimano r540 wheel, but that's not a diy project.

Clive George wrote:
Friend is building a rear wheel. Has a rim with a flat base, and the spoke
holes are offset left/right like normal. He's wondering if it's worth
crossing the spokes a the rim end (ie LH hub - RH rim) in order to give a
larger bracing angle.

Don't do it... I don't know of any rim that is completely flat at the
base, and the eyelets are offset so that the spokes will not need to
bend as much at the rim. I also think the Shimano wheels indicated
that it really didn't help anyway... maybe the angle to the centroid
of the rim is what really matters here.

It would be helpful to mention the rim and hub involved...