Back to wheels again today (and so on).
Built the front wheel for Nomu Lab Wheel #2.
660 hub, 18H, CX-RAY outpoke radial lacing.
The reason I went with 18H isn't because we were out of stock on 20H rims or hubs—it's what the customer wanted. If they'd wanted a stiffer front wheel, there are options like 20H with CX Sprint to increase spoke density. If silver spokes are fine, you could look for hubs with slotted holes and use CX as well.
Back in the old days, road racers (not road bikes) typically had 36H spokes as standard, and while not the typical spec, there were even 40H rims and hubs available.
Time trial bikes from that era ran 32H front and rear, with the bottom bracket shell hollowed out so much you could see all the BB hardware inside, and cranks, chainrings, and everything else drilled full of holes in the name of weight reduction. But they didn't look nearly as far removed from regular road racing bikes as specialized machines do now. And the way wheels were laced back then—front and rear, left and right—was entirely tangential lacing.
When Eddy Merckx set the hour record in 1972 on a fixed gear, his front wheel was 28H radial laced. From the perspective of someone back then, it probably felt like what we'd experience seeing a 12H wheel today. They might have thought, "Won't that front wheel fall apart before he finishes the hour?"
But radial lacing didn't immediately become standard after that—
Even in Bernard Hinault's era in 1985, tangential lacing was still the norm. That said, spoke count had become 32H as the mainstream.
Around 1992, experimenters like Claudio Capucci started regularly using wheels with radial lacing on the front only, and since there weren't any particular problems, radial lacing spread rapidly from that point on.
But people were still cautious about spoke count. The first complete wheelset, Mavic Helium, had an odd 26H front, and even Campagnolo's Neutron front wheel stopped at 22H rather than dropping to 20H. The technological evolution in aluminum alloy is significant, but it seems people gradually figured out that you could reduce spoke count and "surprisingly, nobody died."
Nowadays there are complete wheelsets where the rear wheel is laced 2:1 with radial lacing on the anti-freewheel side (where the disc brake rotor sits) to prioritize that design. As people continue to realize "surprisingly, nobody dies," we might eventually see fully radial laced front wheels become standard. I personally think it's already doable with carbon spokes... but with steel spokes, I believe straight spokes are essential. And that "I believe" is where my hesitation shows.
For over 20 years I've only used front brakes on my road bikes. But if road bikes were instead controlled by rear brake only, I would've laced my disc brake bike's front wheel with kinked steel spokes in radial pattern (since I wouldn't be braking with it anyway).
Built the front wheel for Nomu Lab Wheel #2.
660 hub, 18H, CX-RAY outpoke radial lacing.
The reason I went with 18H isn't because we were out of stock on 20H rims or hubs—it's what the customer wanted. If they'd wanted a stiffer front wheel, there are options like 20H with CX Sprint to increase spoke density. If silver spokes are fine, you could look for hubs with slotted holes and use CX as well.
Back in the old days, road racers (not road bikes) typically had 36H spokes as standard, and while not the typical spec, there were even 40H rims and hubs available.
Time trial bikes from that era ran 32H front and rear, with the bottom bracket shell hollowed out so much you could see all the BB hardware inside, and cranks, chainrings, and everything else drilled full of holes in the name of weight reduction. But they didn't look nearly as far removed from regular road racing bikes as specialized machines do now. And the way wheels were laced back then—front and rear, left and right—was entirely tangential lacing.
When Eddy Merckx set the hour record in 1972 on a fixed gear, his front wheel was 28H radial laced. From the perspective of someone back then, it probably felt like what we'd experience seeing a 12H wheel today. They might have thought, "Won't that front wheel fall apart before he finishes the hour?"
But radial lacing didn't immediately become standard after that—
Even in Bernard Hinault's era in 1985, tangential lacing was still the norm. That said, spoke count had become 32H as the mainstream.
Around 1992, experimenters like Claudio Capucci started regularly using wheels with radial lacing on the front only, and since there weren't any particular problems, radial lacing spread rapidly from that point on.
But people were still cautious about spoke count. The first complete wheelset, Mavic Helium, had an odd 26H front, and even Campagnolo's Neutron front wheel stopped at 22H rather than dropping to 20H. The technological evolution in aluminum alloy is significant, but it seems people gradually figured out that you could reduce spoke count and "surprisingly, nobody died."
Nowadays there are complete wheelsets where the rear wheel is laced 2:1 with radial lacing on the anti-freewheel side (where the disc brake rotor sits) to prioritize that design. As people continue to realize "surprisingly, nobody dies," we might eventually see fully radial laced front wheels become standard. I personally think it's already doable with carbon spokes... but with steel spokes, I believe straight spokes are essential. And that "I believe" is where my hesitation shows.
For over 20 years I've only used front brakes on my road bikes. But if road bikes were instead controlled by rear brake only, I would've laced my disc brake bike's front wheel with kinked steel spokes in radial pattern (since I wouldn't be braking with it anyway).