Radial Spoking?

[artmichalek]

Hah, that's the kind of information I was after. Any thoughts on how well those things might hold up? Would it be a stupid idea to replace, say, my trusty standard 36-spokers with a pair of these, and still expect them to last some 10k miles without any major trouble? How about a pair of Mavic Ksyriums?

Reviews of the Ksyriums range from bombproof to utter ****. Personally, I'm in the process of building up a new wheel set with Record hubs, IRD Cadence rims, and Wheelsmith eliptical spokes (28 front, 32 rear, 2x all the way around). Half the price of the Eurus for the same hub internals and comparable weight. And parts that I'll be able to replace.

 

[DannoXYZ]

Great idea in theory, but the span between spoke groups is too big. The tension is so high on the new aluminum spoked version that they had problems with the rim bulging out between spokes on the prototypes. The problem was "solved" by forming the rim into a sort of rouned off heptagon so that when the spokes are tightened up it becomes round. You really do not want to break one of those spokes. If you want to get something similar with off the shelf parts you can go 16 right and 8 left with a 32h hub and a 24h rim. It would have the balanced spoke tension with a more reasonable span between holes.

yeah, I've always thought that evenly-spaced spokes would be best as the loads are distributed evenly.

 

[Wurm]

Great idea in theory, but the span between spoke groups is too big. The tension is so high on the new aluminum spoked version that they had problems with the rim bulging out between spokes on the prototypes. The problem was "solved" by forming the rim into a sort of rouned off heptagon so that when the spokes are tightened up it becomes round. You really do not want to break one of those spokes. If you want to get something similar with off the shelf parts you can go 16 right and 8 left with a 32h hub and a 24h rim. It would have the balanced spoke tension with a more reasonable span between holes.

This is more BS from the "anti-boutique wheelset" crowd.

Art, custom-built's do not have a monopoly on strength or reliability. In fact, many that I've used have gone goofy much too soon, probably due to less than quality workmanship. Those were wheels built on Campy hubs such as Record & Chorus, and with quality rims/spokes such as Mavic Open Pro's, Velocity Aeroheads, DT Swiss & Wheelsmith, etc., and were built by supposedly "good wheelbuilders".

OTOH, I have owned several Campy wheelsets, including '00 Shamals & '00 Nucleon's, (both in tubular version), and currently '03 Zonda's (clincher, G3 rear/G4 front version) and '02 Bora's (tubular). In many thousands of miles over the years, NONE of these wheels have ever given me a single problem, period. NO broken spokes, NO broken hub shells or freewheels or bad bearings, NO bent rims. NO problems at all.

Not one of those 8 wheels have ever required as much as a touch-up truing.

FYI: I weigh 193 lbs. at the present time, but I do tend to weigh near 200 lbs. in the winter, AND I ride on the notoriously crappy, frost-broken, salt-eaten roads of NY state.

Nobody can tell me that factory-built wheels by Campy are possibly inferior to custom-built's. You may be able to build a lighter wheel for the same money, but you'll never build a more bombproof one at the same weight.

As long as I ever ride a 700c road bike of any description, I'll always own at least one set of Campy wheels, which will probably also be my main wheelset.

 

[Wurm]

Great idea in theory, but the span between spoke groups is too big. The tension is so high on the new aluminum spoked version that they had problems with the rim bulging out between spokes on the prototypes. The problem was "solved" by forming the rim into a sort of rouned off heptagon so that when the spokes are tightened up it becomes round. You really do not want to break one of those spokes. If you want to get something similar with off the shelf parts you can go 16 right and 8 left with a 32h hub and a 24h rim. It would have the balanced spoke tension with a more reasonable span between holes.

This is more BS from the "anti-boutique wheelset" crowd.

Art, custom-built's do not have a monopoly on strength or reliability. In fact, many that I've used have gone goofy much too soon, probably due to less than quality workmanship. Those were wheels built on Campy hubs such as Record & Chorus, and with quality rims/spokes such as Mavic Open Pro's, Velocity Aeroheads, DT Swiss & Wheelsmith, etc., and were built by supposedly "good wheelbuilders".

OTOH, I have owned several Campy wheelsets, including '00 Shamals & '00 Nucleon's, (both in tubular version), and currently '03 Zonda's (clincher, G3 rear/G4 front version) and '02 Bora's (tubular). In many thousands of miles over the years, NONE of these wheels have ever given me a single problem, period. NO broken spokes, NO broken hub shells or freewheels or bad bearings, NO bent rims. NO problems at all.

Not one of those 8 wheels have ever required as much as a touch-up truing.

FYI: I weigh 193 lbs. at the present time, but I do tend to weigh near 200 lbs. in the winter, AND I ride on the notoriously crappy, frost-broken, salt-eaten roads of NY state.

Nobody can tell me that factory-built wheels by Campy are possibly inferior to custom-built's. You may be able to build a lighter wheel for the same money, but you'll never build a more bombproof one at the same weight.

As long as I ever ride a 700c road bike of any description, I'll always own at least one set of Campy wheels, which will probably also be my main wheelset.

 

[artmichalek]

Nobody can tell me that factory-built wheels by Campy are possibly inferior to custom-built's. You may be able to build a lighter wheel for the same money, but you'll never build a more bombproof one at the same weight.

I didn't mean to imply that they were always inferior. But you have to admit that dollar for dollar boutique wheels don't have any advantages until you cross the $600 line.