One of the great missing bits of technical information out there is a way to compare two wheels based on spoke count, spoke gauage, and cross-number, all else (i.e. the rim, the hub) being equal.
I hold this truth to be self-evident : That a baseline wheel should be 36 x 14ga spokes with 3-cross lacing : the 60's/70's/80's vintage wheel.
Then what is the effect of changing to 15ga spokes? What is the effect of reducing the cross-number by 1 (e.g. 2-cross, radial ?) It should be possible to describe wheel strength in terms of subtracting spokes from a baseline wheel, e.g. :
15ga spokes = 32 spoke wheel (14ga, 3-cross)? 14/15 spokes = 35 spokes? to hear jobst talk about it, maybe 37 spokes? 2-cross = 30 spokes? radial = 28 spokes?
The above equivalencies are conjeture but it would sure be helpful to have a standard way to describe wheel strength in a single intuitive unit like 14ga spokes. maybe someone out there with a finite element CAD package could work out the tradeoffs in this area ???
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA