Myosmith

I have two factory wheelsets, one is built with the leading spokes on the outside of the flange and one with the leading spokes on the inside. I wanted to know if and how much of a difference it makes to the strength and stability of a wheel.

Mad Honk 

Myosmith,
I am likely the only person that would advocate for this idea, but in my mind if the drive spokes are closer to the center of the hub they are less stressed and pull the wheel forward. I build with the drive side spokes in the inside of the drive flange and the next pulling spoke on the inside of the non drive side flange. My thoughts are the spokes on the outer flange only hold the drive spokes in place. Probably thousands of wheels built this way, with no serious problems. And as for the build it turns into a four step build that anyone can learn how to do. My build time is about one hour start to finish without having to remember the wacky patterns from Jobst Brandt. His wheel build process drove me nuts until I boiled it down a bit. He always advocated for the drive spokes to be on the same side of the flanges for both the DS and NDS .which always struck me as having the drive move the total wheel toward the side he placed the DS spokes on. This movement is probably undetectable in the big picture. And it may just be speculation by me. But if you want go read his book and let me know how clear the theory is. Smiles, MH

Russ Roth

Not always best with terminology but this is how I build the wheels, the pulling or trailing spokes are on the outside of the flanges as you can see in this pic. With disc brakes most brands say to reverse the direction of the spokes, much like you would do for a flip-flop hub; King says to build them this way and honestly the forces on a bicycle disc wheel are low enough it probably doesn't matter either way and I like the way this looks better. This is how schwinn said to build them back in the day and how I was trained to build them so this is how I do it. I would dare to suggest that having the trailing spokes on the inside of the flanges probably wouldn't make any noticeable difference.

79pmooney

The lesson I learned form my shop mechanic and his friend who used to come by after hours was that the drive side pulling spokes should come off the inside of the flange for a very simple reason I have seen demonstrated many times. If the chain ever drops between the freewheel/cassette and spokes/hub flange, inside pulling spokes will do their best to try to reject the chain. Outside pulling spokes will do their best to suck the chain down deeper.

Rider strength and reaction time is also key and the worst of the better inside pulling is far worse than the best of the outside pulling, but observe enough and you will see a real pattern. I've been watching it now 43 years. Inside puller can probably jury rig and get home. Outside puller - walking or the call of shame. $$s damage. Heavily in favor of the inside puller.

Yes there are other factors and reasons. But chains get thrown and always will. (It can happen even on non-derailleur bikes. Those inside pullers are the same blessing there.

Oh. sticks that get jammed between the front wheel spokes and the fork? Same thing. So I run inside pulling everywhere except on non-drive-side double sided fix gear and singespeed hubs. (If you think about it, you realize that when you flip the wheel, those drive-side pulling spokes become static spokes.)

Ben

Andrew R Stewart 

The other reason to have the pulling spokes exit the hub on the inside is that when huge torque is applied the pulling spokes can pull the rim in their direction. That the drive side spokes are under higher tension then those of the left side means that the rim can shift to the drive side. So when is one applying huge torque? Up hill in the lowest gear, on a tandem this is even more so. If the der cage was close to the spokes in the large cog it will be closer when this shift happens. I've heard "that sound" of a spoke pinging off the cage in these situations, yet when unloaded the spokes cleared the cage just fine. Andy

desconhecido 

I just went out to the garage to verify what I remember as once I learned to lace the spokes I never really thought about it anymore. I learned to lace the spokes from the Brandt book and he recommended that the pulling spokes (i.e. the trailing spokes) leave the drive side flange from the inside -- spoke heads on the outside. He also recommended that the spokes on the rear be laced so that the right and left sides were mirror image. That is, trailing (pulling) spokes on both sides of the hub leave the hub from the inside, i.e. spoke heads on the outside. Just looked at the Brandt book for reference and his expanation of his reasoning is pretty much exactly the same as Andrew Stewart's explanation above.

Moe Zhoost

I build all my wheels with the pulling spokes on the inside of the flange - both sides.

davidad

15 or 20 years ago Mavic did some tests on spoke position. They used wheels built for the pro peloton for the tests. They had fewer problems when the pulling spokes had the heads inside the flange.
To protect the spokes from a dropped chain you need a spoke protector.