Brick Lane Bikes - How Lame Really?

Radial is fucking pointless, good on them for advising against it, resistance from side to side impacts, e.g. hitting potholes going round corners etc etc is piss poor compared to 3X etc. The only reason I can see for radial is maybe for aero purposes so you can lace bladed spokes dead straight from hub to rim, but even then, I think you aren't left with a very resilient wheel.

True, radial is very stiff vertically, but not so good when there are side forces. However, it is pretty much optimal in terms of aero (not that I really care) and looks rather nice. Also on a front wheel there is never force applied to the hub directly (as there is on the rear) so it's not much of a problem. If it's low flange then there is the risk that having the force vectors normal to the flange means spokes may rip out and destroy the hub.

I try not to hit potholes at all and even the strongest 3x will not take well to that. A couple of years ago I hit a pothole on Holloway road, it blew the tire and fucked the rim. It was 3x and I was riding in a straight line.

In terms of cornering, radial is fine. The only problem is that the spokes might try and unscrew themselves slightly, but my wheel is pretty highly tensioned and stiff so I think that's OK.

I tend to check that everything is true on a fairly regular basis, so if there was a loose spoke or any deviation I hope I would notice...