David wrote:
> There is a listing on eBay of a fixed-gear rear wheel with the spokes
> twisted together in the pattern... heres the link:
>
> http://contact.ebay.com/ws1/eBayISAPI.dll?ShowEmailAuctionToFriend&item=7227716858
>
> Ummm... Jobst (and others) how about a little help here on whether this
> is safe.
>
> David
These seem to pose a lot of questions I don't know the answers to, but
there are a few things about them that seem clearly bad. They'll have a
tendency to add built-in stresses to the spokes at the twists, and also
cause the spokes to approach the rim at a sharper angle. Both of these
problems could probably be completely eliminated in theory by setting
the spokes just right, but it seems very tricky with a wheel like this.
Twisting the spokes around each other perfectly is a new problem and
the twisted pattern design inherently gives the spokes a sharper
approach angle to the rim than they otherwise would. Looking at the
pictures, the problem doesn't seem particularly crazy with these
particular components in their faux-3x pattern, but definitely a lot
worse than it would otherwise be. It could probably get out of hand
with different components. I don't think you can really tell for
certain whether this wheel is having problems with bows at the nipples.
All of this, built-in stresses at the nipples or the twists, would
cause an increased chance of spoke breakage if it's present. That's my
guess anyway.
I'd be really surprised if this pattern didn't have any differences in
terms of loading dynamics, etc, with a normal wheel.
