I built a wheel using a customer's Record rear hub.
I'm only building the rear wheel.
This hub isn't in stock at the distributors right now,
and I need several pairs for another job, so I'm in a real bind.
Anyway, enough griping—I got it built.
According to the all-competition rules, lacing is basically not required.
This means correcting left-right spoke tension differences can only be done with asymmetrical lacing on each side.
So I went with 4-cross on one side.
The non-drive side being tangent-laced is fine, but there's a reason the drive side is 4-cross.
I've touched on this before, but I'll write it again.
If you have a wheel with X spokes and want to lace it with Y crosses,
you can build it if Y≦X／4 holds true.
For 4-cross, the minimum number of spokes needed is 4≦16／4,
so 16 spokes is the minimum for 4-cross lacing.
If you want to lace 2-cross, you need to run all spokes through as radial or reverse radial,
but that has many problems, so I don't build it as a product.
As for lacing the drive side radially, in the case of hand-built wheels,
I think that also has many problems.
There's the risk of spoke breakage, but since the spokes are perpendicular to the flange's tangent direction,
I believe there's significant "loss of engagement feel."
The exception is, needless to say, aluminum spokes like Kyserium (Shimano Kyserium with aluminum spokes).
Aluminum spokes have a rigidity that can't be put on the same level as steel spokes.
However, I do want the drive side to be as close to radial as possible compared to the non-drive side.
But I don't want to sacrifice the characteristics of tangent lacing.
The result of thinking about that is 4-cross on the drive side.
Since hand-built rear wheels smaller than 16H are hard to imagine,
regardless of how many crosses the non-drive side is, "4-cross something" is my basic rear wheel building pattern.
If the rim's inner diameter and hub's dimensions are the same, then no matter how the rim's hole count and hub's spoke holes change
(the numbers must be the same),
the spoke length at tangent lacing doesn't change.
For example, if a certain hub with a certain rim has 6-cross at 24H and measures 299.75mm,
then 8-cross at 32H with the same rim and hub will also be 299.75mm.
The hole positions on the hub side and the rim side have changed,
but strangely, it works out that way.
Theoretically, even if the rim and hub stayed the same and you did 90-cross at 360H,
it would still be 299.75mm.
Tangent lacing can only be done when the spoke count is a multiple of 8.
In practical terms, that's 24H and 32H, and occasionally 16H.
The spoke length at those times is the same regardless of hole count.
However, with the same hub and rim, the spoke length for "4-cross" does change.
In an extreme case, with a wheel having hundreds of spokes,
"4-cross" means the spoke angle approaches radial lacing quite closely.
(Though with that many spokes, the flange holes would be so close together you couldn't lace them anyway)
What I'm trying to say is,
4-cross at 32H has a larger difference in left-right spoke angles compared to 6-cross at 24H.
↑Drive side
↑Non-drive side
The relationship between spokes and the radial line.
The spokes I've colored red show the radial line.
The non-drive side isn't quite perpendicular to the radial line,
but it's pretty close to tangent.
The drive side is roughly 45 degrees.
This is tangent lacing to the degree that it doesn't cause loss of engagement,
while also maintaining a decent angle difference with the non-drive side—
I think this is the optimal solution for hand-built wheels.
I'm only building the rear wheel.
This hub isn't in stock at the distributors right now,
and I need several pairs for another job, so I'm in a real bind.
Anyway, enough griping—I got it built.
According to the all-competition rules, lacing is basically not required.
This means correcting left-right spoke tension differences can only be done with asymmetrical lacing on each side.
So I went with 4-cross on one side.
The non-drive side being tangent-laced is fine, but there's a reason the drive side is 4-cross.
I've touched on this before, but I'll write it again.
If you have a wheel with X spokes and want to lace it with Y crosses,
you can build it if Y≦X／4 holds true.
For 4-cross, the minimum number of spokes needed is 4≦16／4,
so 16 spokes is the minimum for 4-cross lacing.
If you want to lace 2-cross, you need to run all spokes through as radial or reverse radial,
but that has many problems, so I don't build it as a product.
As for lacing the drive side radially, in the case of hand-built wheels,
I think that also has many problems.
There's the risk of spoke breakage, but since the spokes are perpendicular to the flange's tangent direction,
I believe there's significant "loss of engagement feel."
The exception is, needless to say, aluminum spokes like Kyserium (Shimano Kyserium with aluminum spokes).
Aluminum spokes have a rigidity that can't be put on the same level as steel spokes.
However, I do want the drive side to be as close to radial as possible compared to the non-drive side.
But I don't want to sacrifice the characteristics of tangent lacing.
The result of thinking about that is 4-cross on the drive side.
Since hand-built rear wheels smaller than 16H are hard to imagine,
regardless of how many crosses the non-drive side is, "4-cross something" is my basic rear wheel building pattern.
If the rim's inner diameter and hub's dimensions are the same, then no matter how the rim's hole count and hub's spoke holes change
(the numbers must be the same),
the spoke length at tangent lacing doesn't change.
For example, if a certain hub with a certain rim has 6-cross at 24H and measures 299.75mm,
then 8-cross at 32H with the same rim and hub will also be 299.75mm.
The hole positions on the hub side and the rim side have changed,
but strangely, it works out that way.
Theoretically, even if the rim and hub stayed the same and you did 90-cross at 360H,
it would still be 299.75mm.
Tangent lacing can only be done when the spoke count is a multiple of 8.
In practical terms, that's 24H and 32H, and occasionally 16H.
The spoke length at those times is the same regardless of hole count.
However, with the same hub and rim, the spoke length for "4-cross" does change.
In an extreme case, with a wheel having hundreds of spokes,
"4-cross" means the spoke angle approaches radial lacing quite closely.
(Though with that many spokes, the flange holes would be so close together you couldn't lace them anyway)
What I'm trying to say is,
4-cross at 32H has a larger difference in left-right spoke angles compared to 6-cross at 24H.
↑Drive side
↑Non-drive side
The relationship between spokes and the radial line.
The spokes I've colored red show the radial line.
The non-drive side isn't quite perpendicular to the radial line,
but it's pretty close to tangent.
The drive side is roughly 45 degrees.
This is tangent lacing to the degree that it doesn't cause loss of engagement,
while also maintaining a decent angle difference with the non-drive side—
I think this is the optimal solution for hand-built wheels.