32 spoke 2x or 3x
 

Any advise in the difference between lacing a 32 spoke wheel in 3x vs 2x other than looks?


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3X spreads the load wider and will build a more durable wheel.

32-spoke wheels were the mainstay in professional road racing from the 1970s or earlier until perhaps the mid-1990s, and lingered on at Paris-Roubaix until around ten years ago. I doubt 1% of them were two-cross.

Cool, sounds like 3x is the way to go! Thanks!


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Is this a mountain bike wheel?

If these hubs have been laced previously, following the previous lacing pattern is a good idea. You can determine the previous pattern from the impressions in the flanges made by the tensioned spokes. 3x will be more tangential than 2x.

FYI - I once laced a rear wheel 3x DS and 2x NDS and I don't think I'll do that again - not worth the effort. 3x DS and radial NDS - that I might try - once - but only on a new hub.

A lot of hypotheses and conjectures have been made about how the number of spoke crossings affects wheel strength, stiffness and durability, but in reality, it makes little difference. Henri Gavin (at Duke University) built and instrumented a set of wheels with differing numbers of crossing, and measured the stresses and strains in the spokes while they were in being ridden, as well as measuring their radial and lateral stiffnesses. He found that the number of crossings had no meaningful difference in spoke loading or fatigue, and only a minor differences in stiffness, which is shown in his published paper:

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ba5...32b5450e4d.pdf

Nice study - thanks

Thanks! I love seeing real data rather than folklore.