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@gbj_tester
ftfy
The whole notion of having an equal number of spokes each side is just another example of design inertia in the cycle industry. In the olden days, wheels were mostly symmetrical, since they had the same fixed sprocket threads on both sides, or very nearly so for the case of single-sided hubs. As multiple freewheels got an ever increasing number of sprockets, the dish in rear wheels got worse and worse, but in small increments. It's a kind of boiling frog problem. Now that the drive side flange is only half the distance from the centre of the non-drive side, the only sensible solution is 2:1 lacing. Anything else effectively has twice as many non-drive side spokes as it needs.