Originally Posted by
unterhausen
I probably made the 2x/3x mistake on my last wheel, just made it 3x out of habit. We'll see how that works out. BITD, we always used 3x on high flange hubs and it worked fine, 4x also works fine. There is no doubt 2x is better though.
Most mechanical engineers are not particularly mechanically inclined. Half of the department works in thermal systems. The other half works on dynamics. Very few profs work in anything mechanically related. Structural design is either in the civil engineering department or the aero department. The mechanical engineering department had a "product dissection" lab for a while. It was pretty embarrassing, to be honest. I think at least 1/3 of the class was taking a bike apart and putting it back together. Lots of ruined tools, especially pedal wrenches.
For most things, three and maybe four cross is ok, but with a Rohloff the flanges are so wide and so far apart that the spoke angle at the nipple is far from perpendicular. Plus, the way the Rohloff flange is designed, if a builder is not careful they can lace it in such a way that where the shell splits and the side plate (held on with 8 or 9 Torx screws), the spokes would be bent on the side plate if they laced it wrong.
I have worked with some mechanical engineers that seemed to be very good at what they did, but they were unable to fix their car door or something simple like that.