Peter,
Harlan Meyers of Hi-E fame was a strong and early proponent of radial laced front wheels, and in fact, built hubs for that purpose as well as completed wheels starting circa 1972/1973. You are welcome to review that Hi-E material which has been posted to WoolJersey, which also includes specific thoughts by Harlan on this very subject, by following this link:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
Now, all of this is not to say that radial laced front wheels were truly "common" in the early 1970's, as they were still very much considered a cutting edge phenomenon back then and were rarely if ever seen on a street bike (...at least not in my little corner of the world). However, for certain and specific competitive applications they were by no means unheard of either.
Robert "radial is not necessarily the same as radical" Broderick ...the "Frozen Flatlands" of South Dakota Sioux Falls, USA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>From: Baron von Drais <draisienne@hotmail.com>
>To: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Subject: [CR]wheel building restoration - may questions
>Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:14:01 -0500
>
>
>Hi all,
>
> With the talk about restorations and accurate rebuilds I was wondering
>w
>hen radial laced front wheels became common and what company first offered
>them as an option? Where was it done first, road or track? Did the TdF ever
> not allow radial laced wheels (with regards to our timeline discussions)?
> I was also wanting to know who has experience building sub-300 gram on
>topic tubular rims (like Sludi's and GEL280's) and if they can hold up unde
>r race conditions being radial laced? My intuition says "don't do it" for m
>y build. Let's say it's a 36 spoke wheel and a 180lb rider although I would
> welcome other examples of do/don't combinations.
>
>Peter Schwar
>going round and round in
>Montreal, Canada
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