General: Front wheel lacing? Radial or 3-Cross?

3x......

From what i've heard, it is stronger. Haven't did my research on it myself. But that's just word around town. I ride 3x on all my bikes. But my next bike will have radial, just for looks ;) it's gonna be my show bike.

I wonder why Keirin racers lace their wheels X4????

I was about to type everything aliderkrasse there did.

I like the way radial looks. According the Sheldon, the advantages are 99% aesthetic, and I believe him on that . I like half-radial in the back, too.

radial lacing is a good way to void your hub warranty for while gaining basically no performance. also i find it hard to believe that there is no loss of durability especially if you are going to be riding on city streets..
i don't know though, it does look kind of nice without overdoing it.

didn't know that about phil and campa, rad. i'm no engineer here but it seems to me that most people on here riding radially laced fronts are doing it on the street for every day riding because it looks cool. i'm sure there is a slight aero advantage to radial lacing on the track but i cant imagine for normal riding the benefits are more than negligible on say a radial 32h wheel vs a 2x 32h.
of course the wheel is going to be laterally stiffer, you are reducing the chance for play. i'm not a wheel bulding master but i have built more than a handful and put in my wrench time and to me (unqualified anecdote) it seems like they develop a hop much faster than a crossed spoke pattern. just picture your hub being held by a basket of spokes. when they come off the hub at more or less tangential angles the little bumps and shocks from the road aren't moving directly into the center of the wheel. they are like little shock absorbers!

For front wheels, you either get greater aerodynamics by lacing head out or greater stiffness by going head in. You can't get both.

Aerodynamics doesn't have to do with the amount of material. It has to do with the frontal area, which equals the radius of the wheel. (A moment of reflection shows me that the heads-in spokes are, in fact, out in the air more, but that's at the hub where it matters least. I guess they're also half a spoke thicker where they cross halfway out), I suppose they're slightly lighter, but you're talking about a difference of basically a single spoke since, over 32 spokes, they each add only about 1 cm. So the weight difference would be the equivalent of a couple of spokes in your pocket.

I dig radial lacing on the front, but that's because it looks clean and simple.

i dig. i like to race (on the track) when i get a chance. but riding for me is about fun, transportation and trying to get people out of their cars. i guess maybe i'm in favor of having things i can run over a man eating pot hole late at night and not have to worry about.

it's cool that we can all have our own prefrence here.

agreed. shit talking can be fun though

yeah they are easy.I started with triple cross patterns and old cruiser wheels but found my way quickly to radials. I love that they lace in like 20minutes and tension and true in another 20 minutes (I know I could do it quicker but I like to take my sweet time). I also like exotic patterns but for a crows foot rear wheel you gotta calculate and buy like 3 different spoke lengths so I only do that for people that pay me for it... I like my own shit simple at top performance

Posted By: jbailieAny fool can poke spokes through holes and true it up !, If you really want to learn something (and then build something other than "shit"! ) Start with a copy of "The Bicycle Wheel" by Jobst Brant, published first edition 1981, This will give you a rough idea of what is really going on between the hub and the rim on the bike, there are a couple others written by "real experts", put this together with all you have learned on your own, Now, they will run over each other to get a wheel set that you built, and it will be "special" even if its only 28 spoke radial !

wow I've read that book years ago and many others since then. I laced 16 spokes radial and one time cross before and rode em on the track so save your breath there are many greater wheelbuilders around and I would not run to any of them because of their name and such. People around here go to "Wheelgirl in Berkeley" and pay her 100 bucks a wheel to lace, tension and true. I only charge 30 to 45 that's why people come to me. You can find fools online that will charge 30 bucks a rim and they do good jobs.
so again "WOW"

I got a UBI account but if I wouldn't have that probably just online. Sapim are pretty good quality for an ok price range (except the cx-ray which are super expensive), just google I guess.

dont do your research here! read up elsewhere.

Radial laced wheels provide more strength side to side.


A lot of bmx flatland riders will ride radial front and back because they are always putting all their weight into their wheels with their foots.

front radial if you are not to big. and if you are full sized i think 1cross is the next best for the front wheel. rear 3x.