Bespoke wheel?

[doodah]

Anyone seen or recognise a wheel being built like this before?

Goodness knows how to replace a broken spoke whilst out cycling.

Doodah

[Bonefishblues]

Isn't that known as 'snowflake'?

[doodah]

Isn't that known as 'snowflake'?

No idea whatsoever - but I think it is a work of art. It looked better 'in the flesh' than the photo suggests.
Do you think it makes the spokes stronger?

Doodah

[hamster]

Snowflake wheel. Very fashionable in MTBs around 1995. Allegedly it was stronger, a nightmare to build.

Great fun and very cool on a retro MTB.

[doodah]

Thanks for the info.

The frame it came off was a round (nearly oval) top and down tubes but the rear part of the frame holding the rear wheel was square tubing. The rear wheel was spoked as normal. The frame had a stylish look to it and would have been a head turner when new, I think.

I think it would have been a good project for some one to rebuild completely but has found a resting place in the recycling skip. Amen.

Doodah

[Bonefishblues]

Why not pop it on Retrobikes foc? Lots looking for authentic parts from the 90s there.

[531colin]

Snowflake wheel. Very fashionable in MTBs around 1995. Allegedly it was stronger, a nightmare to build.

Great fun and very cool on a retro MTB.

And fashionable for cyclo cross before that.
Stronger? Well, in theory the 2 spokes which are twisted together can share load....but the spokes are only next door but one to each other anyway, so unless the rim is impossibly flexible they will share load anyway. I didn't find them terribly difficult to build, but getting the tensions even is just about impossible, the angle between the spoke and nipple is unhelpful, stress-relieving and even measuring tension is made much more difficult for no gain. All that twisting builds in stresses, and I don't think we ever got them out.
Thats a 32 spoke presumably 26" wheel; if you do a 28 spoke 700c wheel and put the twists half-way up the spokes, its more striking in appearance, with great big gaps between the spokes you can put your fist through.
Yup, appearance is what this is all about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgaLdhuyZpc

[hayers]

As a design, it seems a flaw that if one spoke breaks or loses tension then the second, nearby, spoke it's entwined with will also be un-tensioned, doubling the resulting runout.

As a visual effect, very striking though! Thanks for sharing.

[hamster]

Thanks @531Colin for adding that it was a thing in CX long before MTB, I didn't know that.

[rogerzilla]

Tying and soldering is another fairly pointless "alternative" that comes and goes. You wind copper wire around the interlaced crosses and secure with a bit of solder. Makes the wheel hard to maintain, so it had better be built right...and if you can build a wheel well enough never to need retruing, you don't need tying and soldering.