Originally Posted by
himespau
It seems like I've also heard of someone using straight gauge spokes on one side and double butted on the other (or bladed and DB) to try to accomplish this as well (does that make sense?).
Not exactly. Different spoke gauges on the two sides can help balance the tensile stress in the spokes, not the tension. It is a similar difference to compressive force and pressure. So if a smaller cross section area spoke (say 1/2) has also 1/2 the tension in it as the other side spokes, the two will have the same stress in them, the same tension/unit area. Look at it this way, the tensile stress inside the spokes will be the same on both sides, but the force exerted on the hub and rim by the spokes will still be different by a factor of two.. Hard to grasp, I know, if one is not an engineer or scientist. That just assures you the amount of stretch in the spokes will be the same on both sides. It is useful if you insist on having heavier spokes on the DS, because you can have lighter spokes on the NDS. If you are willing to have thinner spokes on both sides, then there is no advantage to making the DS heavier. This is not generally something that needs to be considered.