2:1 spoke lacing pattern
This pattern is used on most of our road wheels, it allows us to build very strong wheels with relatively low spoke counts with better latral stiffness.
By using twice as many spokes on the drive side as on the non-drive-side, the tensions are almost equal between the 2 sides.
There are many benefits:
1.Increased lateral stiffness: The traditional regular spoke pattern has 12 spokes for the Drive Side of a road bike, but 2:1 pattern has 14 spokes for Drive Side. 2 more spokes in 2/3 Cross lacing increase the Lateral Stiffness for the road bike wheel.
2.Even Tension stress on the DS and NDS side: to achieve a good (high enough) spoke tension on the non-drive-side, the drive side spokes of a conventional drilled hub/rim must be at a very high tension, especially so since 11-speed came along with a longer freehub than 10-speed. This puts stress on the rim and hub potentially leading to cracking. With the 2:1 pattern both sides are at the same tension and a lower spoke tension can be used.
3.Avoid tension loosen on non-drive-side spokes: With spoke tensions on some wheels as low as 60-70kg on a standard drilled hub, the non-drive-side spokes are prone to loosening.
4.Increase the strength and lower weight of the wheel: a 24-hole hub in a 2:1 arrangement has 16 spokes on the drive side which is the same as a 32-spoke conventional wheel. A 27-spoke wheel (9/18 drilling) has the same number of drive side spokes as a 36-spoke conventional wheel! This makes it extremely strong.
5.Better driving torsion transfer: due to the increased lateral stiffness, your driving power transmitted to the wheel more instantly.
6.More aerodynamic efficiency for the wheel: As wind tunnel testing suggest,Fewer spokes also mean lower rotational drag,which make wheel rolling faster under windy condition,
7.Last but not least, thanks to this special pattern, spoke tensions are balanced more evenly between drive and non-drive sides and the fatigue life of the rim, hub and spokes is lengthened.
Besides reduced fatigue rate and extended spoke life, a more even tension across each side of the wheel also reduces the stress imbalance around the spoke holes which should prevent possible rim cracks.
See our 2:1 aerodynamic and lightweight Drive carbon spoke Road Elite wheelset.
