Spoke Count

[Dave5N]

To get back to the original point, I race 'cross on Ksyriums. Not many spokes, but a lot of high speed off-road battering. No breakages yet, and no deformity.

The rims get ground down from dirty brake blocks though.

 

[robbarker]

The loading reduces the tension in the bottom spokes, ie they are under compression.

This is where I find the terminology starts getting confusing. The "tensioned spoke system" is in compression, the spokes themselves are not.