More crosses increases the tangent of each spoke and distributes the stresses among more of the components (rim, hub flange, spokes) but if a flange isn't large enough to do a four cross without beginning to bump other spoke heads, the exercise is pointless.
Forty spokes alone may increase durability under load without going to 4x lacing. Insight about particular hub, spokes, lacing and rim combinations from Peter White seems very pertinent. His interrogation of my bike, weight, load and uses preceded any estimate for a wheelset, he told me what to get after providing all that information. Building a tandem-worthy wheel and putting it in a normally spaced frame might bring material stress to the frame, tandem hubs being 140 mm, and make your rear triangle bear more of it. I always went with the idea of bringing all parts of the bike to the level of use expected to produce the best outcome. Reminds me of a particular brand of aluminum bike that marketed stiffness and riders of those bridge girder frames destroying their OEM rear wheels in short time and when subsequently riding the hand-built replacements, wearing out rear tires in fantastically brief periods. Watching those riders climb or sprint from behind was amazing, even an average rider would produce a lateral "wag" left, and right, with each pedal stroke scrubbing the contact patch visibly back and forth. A little give among frame, tire, rim, spokes and hub distributes stresses and seems like the best objective. Andy Cheatham Pittsburgh On Saturday, January 18, 2014 12:03:42 AM UTC-5, Curtis wrote: > > Looking for some words of wisdom regarding lacing a forty spoke rear wheel > 3 cross or 4 cross. Is 4 cross an advantage in strength for a 95 kilogram > rider on a bike of unknown mass? > > Thanks, > > Curtis > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.