Quite recently Sheldon Brown wrote something along the lines of "If you have the same number of spokes front and rear either your front is heavier than it needs to be or your rear is weaker than it should" somewhere on this site.
For a "traditionally" configured bike, rim braked and with a dished rear this makes good sense, but what about bikes with hub-mounted brakes, either drum or disc?
Rear still has the disadvantage of dish, carries the heavier load during most riding, and has to deal with the propelling torque. But the front can become heavily loaded during braking, particularly on pavement/tarmac, so is it still recommendable to use a lower spoke count front?
(I think I'm clear on the forces involved, but I'm uncertain about order of influence/magnitude..)
I assume the original recommendation is mainly a spoke fatigue issue, so (how) would the addition of hub-mounted brakes change the recommendation? Is there a possibility of causing front wheel failure through brake generated torque? Or through dynamic weight transfer during braking?
(this would be with a drum brake hub(high flange), so front would be symmetrically dished)
I'm not thinking of anything particularly extreme here, maybe a 36(3X, half radial)-28(2X) combo on a lightly loaded commuter.
Functionally I could very probably get away with a much more generic build, but where's the fun in that?
Cheers,
For a "traditionally" configured bike, rim braked and with a dished rear this makes good sense, but what about bikes with hub-mounted brakes, either drum or disc?
Rear still has the disadvantage of dish, carries the heavier load during most riding, and has to deal with the propelling torque. But the front can become heavily loaded during braking, particularly on pavement/tarmac, so is it still recommendable to use a lower spoke count front?
(I think I'm clear on the forces involved, but I'm uncertain about order of influence/magnitude..)
I assume the original recommendation is mainly a spoke fatigue issue, so (how) would the addition of hub-mounted brakes change the recommendation? Is there a possibility of causing front wheel failure through brake generated torque? Or through dynamic weight transfer during braking?
(this would be with a drum brake hub(high flange), so front would be symmetrically dished)
I'm not thinking of anything particularly extreme here, maybe a 36(3X, half radial)-28(2X) combo on a lightly loaded commuter.
Functionally I could very probably get away with a much more generic build, but where's the fun in that?
Cheers,