[Closed] snow flake laced wheels?

Had one once (till it was stolen with my Orange Vit T2).
Looks pretty, no functional advantage that I could discern.

makes truing the wheel much harder, and replacing a broken spoke is a major pain.

well a few folk have told me that they are way less stronger than a normal 3x. but none of them have ridden one. im toying with building one for myself but i dont want it to fold when i do a jump or drop!

I did one once when I had some overly long spokes I wanted to use up. They work fine in anger, but you really need purple anodized bar ends for the full 90's look.

i think halo were making purple rims. humm. maybe not eh?

Wow, not seem snowflakes for ages!

I built a few in the early 90's and rode one pretty hard in the Peak on some sketchy forks so they took some hammer. On a purple Hope hub, front what I remember. Also had some on XT hubs (hand painted with flowers) and white Panaracer tyres! Still got both somewhere actually!

The theory is that, by constraining the spokes the effective length is shorter so the wheel is stiffer.

The counter argument is that bending the spokes introduces stresses, making the spokes potentially weaker at the bend point. Spokes usually fail at the 90 degree hub end though, not in the middle.

They take longer to build. I made a tool that held a spoke pair the right distance apart during twisting so they were 'persuaded' into shape rather than forced and bent.

People who complain about noise or frequent re-truing have just ridden badly build snowflakes.

Spokes are only a couple of mm longer than regular so no real weight penalty.

Plus side - swapping rims is much easier as it can be debuilt without the spokes moving.

cheers gravity-slave thats good avice. as i said i have built a few and never had them come back. i have just never had one myself. i think im going to build one as my front wheel. i will post it up when its done. the above one i built onto an old magura hub. the only spokes that fit were sapim strongs so i dont think they will break in a hurry. cheers joe x

The really important thing is to not force the bends into the spokes. Lace them as evenly as possible, not just for strength but for cosmetics - you want all the bends to start at the same radius from the axle and last for the same distance.

The best results I achieved was by offering up the spokes, untwisted, to the holes in the rim where they would end up and fixing them at the correct distance apart, then rotating the threaded ends to create the twist. Keeping this consistent should give you repeatable and even twists, which not only makes the wheel look even but makes it easier to true and stay straight longer.

cheers bud x

They're ok for posturing around a cafe on your fixie.

Needs a good wheelbuilder though.

That's about it.

snowflake = pointless.
Other pointless stuff
http://www.terminalvelocity.demon.co.uk/WheelBuild/3leading.htm

The theory is that, by constraining the spokes the effective length is shorter so the wheel is stiffer.

If they were tied, maybe...

FWIW I had one back in the day, I did a month long road-tour in France on it, had to rebuild it half way round 😛

had a Merlin built one on front of what is now my commuter bike for about 18 years
Only had to change hub bearings (Shimano) and give it a true on a couple of occasions
Ok for last 6 years its only seen light road use but before that it went everywhere and has outlasted V Brakes and seen various rigid and suspension forks come and go
Looks bling but these days can't really see much point

I am sure they look better on a bike but that photo looks like my front wheel after a particularly heavy landing.

They're fine but I wouldn't build them through choice - PITA to true and they also tend to go out of true in use from new as the spokes bed in (unlike mythical 'bedding in' of normal wheels this is real as the twisty bits do settle and loosen).

This one : http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/very-retro-snowflake-front-wheel-fir-impes-content
has lasted well without any problems...

Anyone interested?

(PS sorry about the hijack!) 🙂

Mine happily ran for a number of years in the mid 90's on a fully rigid bike(s) without ever needing truing or rebuilding (built by Merlin). I only stopped using it when I moved to disks.

It now hangs on a wall:

[img] [/img]

I've been thinking of building one of these for myself. How do I calculate the spoke lengths?

Cheers, Edd

so a pretty mixed opinion then. im going to go with it. will let you know1!! 😉

Had one on the front of my old Rock Lobster Expert HT since it was new in 1994 (see pic taken last month)handbuilt by Merlin.
It has [i]never[/i] needed truing and it was my XC race bike till 1997, I think it has been brilliant and always forces comments like "what the **** have you done to your wheel!" etc

[IMG] [/IMG]

[img] [/img]
these guys make loads of crazy wheels. http://www.cyclemonkey.com/gallery.shtml nice stuff.