Favourite spoke lacing

I'm hoping to build some wheels up myself when this postal malarkey is over and I can get hold of the bits I need.

In the meantime, I need your opinion on spoke lacing.
I was thinking of going crows foot on rear and radial on front (both hubs 36h).

There are some samples here.
Check out the 3leading 3trailing, it looks great but I don't reckon it'll be strong enough.

What do you think?

i've built wheels that were 28, 32, and 36h all in 3cross. it tends to be the pretty standard way to lace wheels and doesn't compromise strength. if you're a big dude possibly consider 4cross - but you need MINIMUM 36h for that. i don't see a problem in doing crows feet as long as it doesn't confuse you too much. normally when i hear 'crows feet' i think of the whole twisting-spokes-to-lace-wheels thing, which in my mind can't be very strong, and also is a bitch to measure out spoke length for. radial is ok for the front (usually never for the back unless you really know what you're doing when it comes to weight distribution and will only be riding a certain way on certain terrain) though it again depends on how big you are and how much you plan on punishing your wheels.
for my first wheel build i had considered doing some trippy shit with lacing, but in the end decided 3cross front and rear would be easiest, and i don't regret it - the wheels have help up great.

2-cross on a 28h is nice.

Ditto that 36h is the minimum for 4-cross (if you don't want to cross over the spoke heads), but I reckon 4x is overkill.

If you're going radial on the front, you've got the dilemma of whether to go heads in or out... :S

3 leading 3 trailing looks pretty cool.

BringMeMyFix 2-cross on a 28h is nice.

Ditto that 36h is the minimum for 4-cross (if you don't want to cross over the spoke heads), but I reckon 4x is overkill.

If you're going radial on the front, you've got the dilemma of whether to go heads in or out... :S

hole number divided by 9 yields possible number of crosses you can do
36/9 = 4 you can do it
32/9 = 3.55 3 is the max you can do

4-cross on the rear is NJS spec isn't it ;-)

I'm really digging the crowsfoot wheel I built for my lady. It looks really good and has been tested on a number of massive potholes already. The only downside to crowsfoot seems to be that it only works on certain spoke counts. However, hybrid crowsfoot also looks good for the in-between spoke counts.

Try searching for David K's pictures of his hybrid crowsfeet wheels, they look really good.

pip Try searching for David K's pictures of his hybrid crowsfeet wheels, they look really good.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/buro9/1008050285/][img]http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1091/1008050285_451a1fb350.jpg[/img

I love them. Best thing I purchased all year. They are unbelievably good to ride on, and seem to take any knocks I throw their way, which has made me a little reckless as I now feel comfortable going down small staircases, ignoring potholes and riding through them and otherwise doing things that I wouldn't have before.

i've got 3leading/3trailing on my wheels at the moment. i think it's beautiful.
i've only had the wheels for a month and a half, but they seem to be holding up nicely, especially considering that i'm prone to riding into and over things i oughtn't (and more often than not am carrying a load of junk that weighs a ton).

velocity boy They are unbelievably good to ride on, and seem to take any knocks I throw their way, which has made me a little reckless as I now feel comfortable going down small staircases, ignoring potholes and riding through them and otherwise doing things that I wouldn't have before.

Jeez, I get nervy hopping down kerbs. What kind of staircases are we talking about here?

The little kind. When you have 4 or 5 steps to get from one path to another. Anything more would still scare the bejesus out of me.

3 leading 3 trailing is beautiful ,american mike had some at bike polo the other day. i might try 2 leading 2 trailing on my next 32h wheel building

Does spoke heads in/out make much of a much?

I heard that the flex is less stressful on the heads if the heads are facing in. True?

JOL Does spoke heads in/out make much of a much?

I heard that the flex is less stressful on the heads if the heads are facing in. True?

I heard that head in makes a stronger wheel - its the same effect as increasing the gap between flanges.
I suppose this only applies to radial as all other patterns use both in and out.

BTW, Cheers for the info.
I'd be interested to see how long the 3l3t stand up to abuse. (got any pics of these?)

I've got 3-leading 3-trailing on my front wheel. It's been reliable and maintenance free for over 2 years.

One plus is that you can clean the hubs really easily!
Half my spokes are black, half silver. They "strobe" slightly at speed which is fun.

I had real trouble tensioning them properly until I put a single crossing on each set of 3 spokes. This shot was taken before I de-stressed them the first time. That spoke crossing you can see on the far right has now been crossed so the silver passes under the black.

If I did this again I'd use large flange hubs, they look better.

I like the two-tone spokes, neat touch.

chap at the social ride had a regular snowflake pattern going on. looked complex. thingummybob did it at london fields. he does all sorts of lacings.