High Flange or Low Flange

2X, 3X or rad. What gauge spokes to chose, how many......

It ain't easy, is it? Or is it really that hard?

Let's start with the flanges. Early days flanges were kept high to benefit from shorter spokes and less wind up, causing less wear to the spokes. Especially the elbows. Down side -> Makes a heavier hubs. If used tangential lasing, the spoke gets an unfortunate angle toward the rim.

So. What about a low flange. No problems there. But in these days of 9 speed and 10 speed hubs, the angle from DS spokes gets very low causing very little tension NDS witch again leads to a weak wheel unless very high tension DS.

And, here's my favourite. High (medium) flange DS with spokes crossed 1 less the what you usually would and low flange NDS. This will give a slightly better angle out from the flange and makes it possible to have some more tension NDS making the wheel stronger (read: carry more weight)

The wheel will also be stiffer, mostly because of the shorter spokes. We might be talking about 10mm which is quite noticeable. That would make it possible to go for a thinner spoke DS without loosing any lateral stiffness. Not that it really matters. If a wheel is strong enough, it's stiff enough.

Very often, the best upgrade would be to go for a thinner spoke NDS and that alone would cause the wheel to stand higher loads. When you experience a 'flimsy' wheel, I might measure to be stiff, but what you really feel is the spokes NDS going slack -> loosing control of the rim. Higher tension and thinner spokes NDS would help that matter