Triplet lacing a (non-disc) front wheel?

[estuche]

Is there any downside to lacing a front hub as a triplet (2:1), only so as to match the aesthetics of a rear wheel? Curious if that would be okay..

[HTupolev]

Originally Posted by estuche

Is there any downside to lacing a front hub as a triplet (2:1)

Yes.

Using ordinary cross lacing, rear wheels frequently require close to (and occasionally more than) double the tension on DS as NDS in order to achieve correct dish. Since you don't want to go too high with tension on any individual spoke, this means that NDS spoke tension needs to be low, which can make NDS spokes more prone to fatigue.

Triplet lacing is an attempt at compensating for this with an imbalanced spoke count: instead of using double the tension on the drive side, use double the spokes on the drive side. This achieves the desired dish at much smaller tension ratio between DS and NDS, so all spokes can enjoy high tension.

Front wheels generally aren't dished, so when you triplet lace, you introduce an unnecessary imbalance: since you have twice as many DS spokes as NDS, the NDS spokes need to use roughly double the tension as DS spokes in order to achieve correct dish. So now your front NDS spokes are limited by your rim's max tension, and the front DS spokes are at low tension.

Basically, triplet-lacing the front wheel recreates the problem that you were trying to avoid by triplet-lacing the rear wheel.
This doesn't mean that it couldn't work; obviously well-built cross-laced rear wheels usually survive a long time despite having a tension imbalance. But it's a bit silly.

[estuche]

Great to learn this, I appreciate the insights!

[thirdgenbird]

You can group spokes with the 2:1 side switching with every pairing. This gives you and even number of spokes on each side and the same appearance as triplet lacing. No benefits, but it does match. Campagnolo briefly did it on an entry level wheelset.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by estuche

Is there any downside to lacing a front hub as a triplet (2:1), only so as to match the aesthetics of a rear wheel? Curious if that would be okay..

Ya know, you can only see those 'aesthetics' when yer sitting still..yes? As has been mentioned, it does nothing and 'may' make for an unreliable wheel. Wheel 'performance' is really what counts, not really how it 'looks'..IMHO..

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by thirdgenbird

You can group spokes with the 2:1 side switching with every pairing. This gives you and even number of spokes on each side and the same appearance as triplet lacing. No benefits, but it does match. Campagnolo briefly did it on an entry level wheelset.

Like he said, Campagnolo did this with their Vento G3 wheels:




It was just for looks. Like oldpotatoe said, for the same components, this wheel is likely to be less reliable than a more traditional wheel. But if you really like the looks, using an extra beefy rim should make a wheel that is reliable enough.