Twist laced wheels

Does anyone have any experience of these? Are they much weaker than normal?

You mean snowflakes and the like?
Yes, much weaker then standard 3x.

http://www.pinkbike.com/forum/listcomments/?threadid=66330&pagenum=1

You'll look a clown with those.

Yeah like these the guy on the site i saw them on seemed to claim they were just as strong as standard 3X

Flower power!

You'll look a clown with those.

Don't worry wasn't planning to get some just had seen them wondered if they were impractical.

I'm gonna make one soon

You mean snowflakes and the like?
Yes, much weaker then standard 3x.
WTF, you speakin with Ed?!?
built and ridden a few of these in the past, never seen a problem.

if spokes were meant to be bent and twisted out of shape they would come in the shape of a double helix not straight as a die

i can't see aany benefit of having the spokes done like that apart from hipster-ism

true its for looks, but like any wheel, as long as built and tensioned, no problems.

WTF, you speakin with Ed?!?.

Nope. Just wheel builders.

Would be fun replaceing a snapped spoke I'd imagine.

due to the twisting getting the tensioning even is a lot more difficult. Just because you experienced no problems dogs does not mean they are as strong as 3 cross.

I thought it was generally the consensus that the pattern is weaker, heavier and harder to build/maintain/repair.

They can look different/nice though, so whatever.

Can i just say that we used to do that on mtb's in the 90's. Not the snowflake design but just a one double twist on the spokes. The idea was to make the whole thing stiffer, pretty much like the tied and soldered spokes on track bikes. Some people used to argue that you could use thinner spokes with this technique and have the same outcome.

HOWEVER you mustn't do this on the drive side of the rear wheel since the troque applied by the chain pulls forward and hence if the spokes are twisted they are weaker. My old rigid mtb still has this design and the wheelset is about 16 years old.

Very pretty but looks a bit like chicken wire imho
Dont wires always snap easier where they are bent?
Plus I bet trueing it is a bitch.