Radial Lacing 36H

[bduc61]

Have got
XTR M910 hubs 36H
and 217 or 517 sup ub rims

was thinking of radial lacing front wheel and rear hub on one side

have read the different messages that said that it may be a bit more fragile than 3X ( some actually mentionned they had no problem whatsoever)

would the fact that it is a 36hub make it more recommandable than a 32H hub?

and the fact that I am 5 foot 9 and 11 stone 3lb makes it more "palatable" technically ?

 

[lewis1641]

Isn't the primary reason for radial lacing to shave a few grams? If so it doesn't seen right doing it with 36 hole hubs. Seems then it would be doing it for the sake of doing it. Just my thoughts

 

[perry]

+1 ^^

 

[bojangle]

+3 :?

 

[utahdog2003]

Radial has no place on a mountain bike, IMHO. 3X is the way to go. If you want something different, then you can crow's foot the front wheel and 1X the rear on the non drive side (rim brakes only). But if it were mine I'd do 3X.

 

[beagle]

Isn't the primary reason for radial lacing to shave a few grams? If so it doesn't seen right doing it with 36 hole hubs. Seems then it would be doing it for the sake of doing it. Just my thoughts

Pretty much. Radial lacing stresses the hub flanges more than 3x and goes out of true easier. The XTR hubs weren't designed to be laced radially and suppose they've been laced 3x before? That could potentially make the stress on the hub worse. You can't tension a radially laced wheel as much as 3x.

That said, loads of people have no problems and I wouldn't worry about it. If you want to do it, do it.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Of course you can do it, spoke number doesn't really matter.

You'll save 12cm of spoke on the rear and 36cm of spoke at the front
so about 10g to 15g for the whole set-up for DB spokes.

Can look good on the right bike to.

 

[utahdog2003]

crow pics

Pretty slick. I haven't done one in a while now, so these pictures are from the web.

 

[sancho]

Radial lacing on the front creates too much lateral flex for my taste, but if you really want to go that direction it's probably better to do it with a 32h or 28h hub. The problem with radial lacing on a 36h hub is that there is less material between the spoke holes, so you increase the chance of breaking off a chunk of the flange, especially if the hub was laced 3X previously.

That said, you will probably be OK if you do it only on the non-drive side of the rear wheel (FWIW, Sheldon Brown was a big advocate of half radial rear).

 

[IbocProSX]

In 1997 Santa Cruz ran radial laced front wheels as a signature feature on their line-up when I ordered my Heckler. The brochure had a full spread of marketing speak proclaiming the many advantages of radial spoked front wheels, yeah right...

So I ordered a light as sin set of wheels with Ritchey WCS hubs, DT Revolution spokes, alloy nips and sub 400 gr Sun rims. Oh and the Ritchey instructions said specifically it was not designed for radial lacing. Well in the end the radial wheel held up to about 4 years of riding every week. I lived abroad for 3 of those years and rode in rocks and gravel on proper hills, occasionally up to 3000m (and down again). And they did not require a lot in terms of keeping true either. I guess riding suspension did help preserve the wheels, but after 4 years the front hub did crack at the flange.

Notably the wheelset was built by a master builder, and FWIW I'm 6'2" and a bit of a Clydesdale, back then around 200 lbs 92kg.

If you fancy it I say go for it.

Enjoy!!