Originally Posted by
joejack951
Interesting. So your feeling/experience is that non-interlaced spokes yield a stiffer wheel while interlacing makes the wheel more resilient. Other seem to claim that interlacing stiffens the wheel. I'm planted firmly in the middle thinking it makes no difference at all.
Any feeling about the effects of interlacing on j-bend spoke life?
First of all consider that any differences are going to be small. BITD when we were using large and small flange hubs there would be endless debates about wheels stiffness, and also about 3x vs 4x. Some rider swore they could feel the difference, and while I believed there were differences I never felt they were enough to be felt except maybe at the extremes.
Also, consider that there's lots of apples vs. oranges going on, because we were using 15g spokes in the era of LF hubs, vs. 14g as we moved to SF hubs.
Likewise, it's hard to make direct comparisons about weaving because most of us wove when we could, and when we didn't we were also building 1 or 2x vs 3 or 4x.
On the track, I build reduced crosses in the front because that does improve lateral stiffness, and couldn't weave those even if I wanted. I don't weave the rears, and riders have reported that they felt more snappy when they broke into a sprint. I don't know if they really felt anything, or if it was some kind of Placebo Effect, but it didn't matter because the Placebo Effect is a real thing and if a rider thought it was faster it would be. (or at least I wouldn't be blamed if it weren't).
So, all I'll argue seriously is that weaving improves the fatigue life of wheels, and leave folks to believe what they will about not weaving. (BTW- I never argue this points unless asked)