Calling wheel-building experts. Spoke count or rim depth for stiffness???



Originally Posted by Peter@vecchios .



28/32, 50mm, double butted spokes and it will be fine for you. 2 cross front, 3 cross rear. Mixed lacings including radial LH rear does nuthin and remember, 4 spokes weigh about an ounce.
Thanks for the concise suggestion/direction. Much appreciated!
 
tafi said:
Your legs would not be able to tell the difference between a balanced or an unbalanced wheel.  A bike has two wheels so any imblanace is in the plane of motion (ie you won't notice).  In a car, however there are four wheels and two wheels side by side control the direction of motion.  An imbalance on one of those wheels is enough to make the steering funny (you've probably felt the steering wheel tugging back and forth on the expressway).  But, as mentioned above, it's only usually noticeable at speed.
 
There was a thread on this a while back.  A few back of the envelope calculations are enough to tell me that you would need a huge imbalance and/or be travelling at an ungodly (impossible on a bike - and probably impossible in most cars) speed for an imbalanced wheel to be a problem.
 
PS: The old Shamals are not legal for mass start road races (sadly).  They're built with 12 spokes and 16 is now the UCI minimum allowable spoke count.  Depends on how anally retentive your local comissaire is (in Australia ours are, VERY!)
 
Hi tafi, yes your legs may not feel it but Fulcrum think it is important enough to mention with their advertising of the Racing 1 wheelset (and other wheelsets also) ...
Dynamic Balance Unlike carbon rims, all the aluminium rims are joined. The joint, though indispensable, entails a concentration of material in a single point and creates an annoying “jump” effect at speed. Fulcrum has eliminated this annoying problem with the Dynamic Balance patent. The concept is simple and elegant: balance the mass of the joint with a mass of the same weight. For top models, this is obtained by a special operation on the section of the rim opposite the rim joint. For entry-level models, Dynamic Balance is obtained by using two oversized spokes in the section opposite the joint. The result is a wheel with perfectly balanced rotational dynamics.
 
More fool Fulcrum and whoever believes them! My bike has never leaped off the ground (whether the wheels were balanced or not).

I would agree however that wheel imbalance can be a pain when trying to work on a bike in a workstand, but this is a completely different scenario dynamically compared to the bike rolling along the road with a big mass (the rider) on top.

Also bear in mind that a manufacturer can make a wheel balanced before it leaves the factory, but by the time it has rim tape (overlapping tape can cause imbalance), a tube (different sized valves have different masses concentrated at a point) and a tyre on it I'd be surprised if it was perfect.

THIS IS MORE THAN SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC so perhaps we should take it elsewhere....