On 12/21/2009, Ken wrote:
> My winter bike wheels (Normandy hubs and Mavic MA2 rims) have just come
> back from the wheel shop after a respoke with Italian stainless spokes
> to try and solve a clicking spoke issue. I note that the wheel builder
> has employed a rather unusual technique to lace the spokes and he calls
> this Spanish lace.
> The Spanish lace appears to be a combination of radial spoke lacing and
> 2X spoke lacing (forward and reverse) on adjacent spokes with all the
> spoke heads being inserted from the inside face of the hub flange.
>
> A picture of this hub and spoke weave can be found at
>
> http://li6qpa.blu.livefilestore.com/
>
>
> I wonder why the wheel builder has chosen to employ this lace pattern
> other than as a cure for 3X lacing boredom ?
>
> Are any technical advantages or disadvantages known about this spoke
> lace pattern ?
That looks like the pattern hipsters refer to as "crow's foot":
http://spokeanwheel.110mb.com/
It is claimed to be stronger and lighter, but I'm not aware of any reputable tests demonstrating this. It does require two different length spokes for front wheels (one length for the tangential spokes, the other for the radial), and perhaps up to four different length on a rear wheel (two lengths for the drive side, two slightly longer lengths for the non-drive side).
I suspect the primary reason for doing this pattern is aesthetic.
--
-John Thompson (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA