Lacing pattern.......Again

Yes, but listen up. There is a few things to know about radial and tangential lacing. We all, or most of us at least, know that radial is lateral stiffer and tangential torsional stiffer, so why shouldn't one run radial DS and tangential NDS.

In fact. Many do just that. Mavic with their Ksyriums (SSC and ES) and Shimano with their sets. It takes a stiffer hub shaft to make it work properly, but it is kind of a win win situation. You get a stiffer wheel where it counts. The torsional forces compared to the vertical ones aren't that big anyway.

In terms of stiffness. What do one win with going radial DS. The spokes gets nearly 20mm shorter and the angle from the rim toward the flange increases with 6.9%. The elasticity/spoke elongation is reduced by the same factor (6.9%)*. This is compared with 28h 3X. 2X vs 3X will give a difference in length of 10mm.(ERD=600 Flange=46 FD=19)

Does it matter. Wouldn't 3X both sides still be stronger?

Yes and no. Due to the increased lateral stiffness and improved angle, we can increase the tension NDS. This will improve the wheels capability to carry heavy loads without the NDS spokes loosing control of the rim.

So why don't I build my wheels radial DS? because not many hubs are designed to take that kind of load. But. What you'll very often see me do is use a thinner spoke NDS. this way, the spoke will stretch / warp more and you'll have a stronger wheel. Not stiffer, but stronger. An other way of doing more or less the same thing is Campa / Fulcrums 2:1 lacing.

So. A rear wheel with a whole bunch of radial spokes NDS is not at all neccesarily a strong wheel. Some very well know very expensive brands' NDS spoke tension can be meassured as low as 40N. And lower!. That's far below any tension-meter-conversion-table I have!

*Most of the elongation is at the swagged area and the difference in length is not necessarily in this area only. It could be less or in fact more.