Rear Fixed Wheel Spoke Pattern

After a bit of advice. I am fairly new to it and have been riding fixed for 4 months so far on my Charge Plug with the stock wheels. Now I'm building up a pair of velocity's on goldtecs. Front wheels I've done radial which I can't see a problem with. Rear wheel I am wondering whether it's ok to do Radial on the Non-Drive and 3 Cross on the Drive side as per most high end road bikes? I'm guessing not because of the increased forces during braking with the drivechain. If not I'll just build them up 3 Cross.

Cheers,

Tom

The point of doing a asymmetric pattern is to even out spoke tension caused by the dishing you have on a geared rear wheel. Don't bother on a fixedwheel. If you want to do something different do crows foot

more info http://www.geocities.com/spokeanwheel/lacingcf.htm

First question. Is it a flipflop hub?

Don't do radial at all on a rear wheel. I wouldn't on a front, personally, either.

I built that crows foot pattern for my rear wheel (same spoke lengths as 3 cross), and it feels really solid.

Last set of wheels I built I did radial on the front and 3-cross on the back. I like the contrast between the two, personally. I would never dream of doing radial on the back.

Read the bicycle wheel by jobst brandt (i think that's his name) for why any spokes perpendicular to the hub flanges are baaaaaad.

Radial spoked (cross 0) wheels have the spokes going straight out from the hub. This pattern is only suitable for front wheels that don't use hub brakes. They are very cool-looking, and are often a good choice for the ultimate in performance, because they are slightly lighter and, in theory, may have a very slight aerodynamic edge.
There are two things to watch out for with radial wheels. Because the nipples point straight inward from the rim, they can turn more easily in most rims than when they are bent to a slight angle by a semi-tangent spoke pattern. This ease of turning increases the risk of them unscrewing themselves on the road. To prevent this, nipples on radial wheels should not be lubricated, and it is a good idea to use a spoke adhesive such as Wheelsmith Spoke Prep or one of the milder flavors of Loctite ® on them.

The other potential problem with radial wheels is that since the spokes are trailing straight outward on the hub flange, they can possibly rip the outer edge of the flange right off along the line of the spoke holes. This is most likely to happen with small flange 36 hole hubs, because there is less metal between the spoke holes. If a used hub is re-laced radially, the notches left by the old spokes can act as stress risers, further weakening the flange.

Many hub manufacturers specifically recommend against radial spoking for this reason, and will not honor warrantys on hubs that have been spoked radially.

Some folks will say that no bicycle wheels should be radially spoked for this reason, so do this at your own risk. In my experience, it's generally OK with good quality hubs that have forged shells.

If you want to take your chances and try a radial spoked front wheel, I would advise avoiding using thick spokes and very high tension. Since front wheels are generally pretty trouble-free compared with rears, you don't need super-high tension on a front wheel that uses a reasonable number of spokes.

Bicycle folklore has it that radial-spoked wheels give a "harsh" ride, because the shorter spokes are less "stretchy" than the longer spokes used in semi-tangent wheels. This is hooey!

Wheels with hub brakes and drive wheels should never be radially spoked. Due to the near perpendicular angle of the spoke to the hub's tangent, any torque applied at the hub of a radial spoked wheel will result in a very great increase in spoke tension, almost certainly causing hub or spoke failure.

Cheers for your comments guys. Built the rear just standard 3X in the end.

Tom

Sorry to hijack this, but does anyone have any input on using a crow's foot pattern on a rear 36h?

Also, is there any dis/advantage to lacing it with a single cross (i.e. all 3 of the crow's "toes" are right next to each other) or having them one hole apart...?

I forgot to mention above that mine are 36h on a rear wheel. as i said before, they feel solid, have taken a couple of knocks and stayed true. I believe you need 2 cross spoke length when lacing with the toes not overlapping. 3 cross is supposed to give greater tortional rigidity than 2 cross as angle between axle+spoke hole on hub+spoke hole on rim is closer to 90degrees (radial is least tortioally rigid as angle is 180 degrees).

This style of spoking used to be called Spanish Lace. It should be ok for fixed. If you used Spanish with gears, you are better getting the wheels laced from the inside to give more clearance.

spanish lace was when the spokes were twisted around each other. was big in the 90 with the mountain bikers. pain in the ass to lace up. not recomended. geo.