I just got off of the phone with Mark at Phil Wood, and then I called back and talked with Bruno at Phil Wood just to double-check (after Peter at Cog Magazine specifically asked me if this also applied to Phil Wood SLR track hubs). Cats on two wheels: Phil Wood will warranty any Phil Wood hub that is radially laced. You will not void the Phil Wood warranty if you radially lace any Phil Wood high-flange regular, SLR (the track hub with little windows cut out of the flanges), or low-flange track; road, and single-speed hubs. Bruno said he had not yet seen a Phil hub flange sheared off, since Phil uses a less brittle aluminum alloy to make their hubs and stress on the flanges causing fractures don't happen the same way they do on hubs manufactured with more brittle aluminum. The worst thing Bruno has seen are a few hubs from the 1970s and 1980s which had been re-laced 4 times over 30 years, and the spoke holes finally said that they were tired causing the flanges to warp a bit. I'll take that kind of quality any day.
According to Mark, the engineers who designed the Phil Wood high-flange track hubs design them with the thought that cyclists might want to lace their front hubs radially. If you are new to fixed gear riding, radial lacing is the spoke pattern that looks minimal and cool, since the spokes don't cross. They radiate out from the center of the hub straight into the rim.
Alright rebel riding cats, I can already hear the question: "But what if i do want to radially lace my rear fixed Phil Wood hub. Will that void the warranty?" (Jump for the answer.)
(Example photo lifted after random Google search from Velospace.org)
The answer, according to Bruno, is you will not void the warranty if you radially lace a rear Phil Wood hub. Any hub that Phil Wood makes is warrantied for radially lacing, just as long as the spokes are tensioned to meet manufacturer stress tolerances for the hub, rim, and spoke types. This means you can't ignorantly tension your spokes so tightly that you massively deform the metals of the wheel components and expect a bike component company to pay for your inexperience. But I asked Bruno if cyclists really radially lace fixed gear rear hubs. Bruno replied, "It is silly. But it is done." According to Bruno, people do lace a two-cross on the drive side and radial on the non-drive. But if you are riding Phils on Velocity Deep Vs, you are paying for strong, inelastic, and highly dependable. And Bruno and I both agree that a 3x rear track wheel is what we ride, since we are boring and lazy and want to spend our time riding our bikes not fixing them. There are laws of physics that make radially lacing a fixed wheel being pulled on by a chain under extreme stress an exceedingly unsound idea.
Strong suggestion: Don't radially lace any hub unless the manufacturer designed the hub flanges to withstand radial lacing. Your questions about lateral versus torsional strength and comparisons of radial and 2x, and 3x spoking patterns are moot if the wheel components are not engineered as a system to support certain lacing patterns. What happens, rebel cats, if you go against the rules? You can pull off the hub flanges (seen it); break off the flanges in little chunks by the spoke holes (seen it); and due to consequences of your rebel lacing actions, spend way too much time riding a couch watching day-time TV while your bones knit. Yes, I have read lots of accounts of people who radially lace a hub that is not designed to be laced this way and do just fine. But metal parts are engineered with particular strength and stress factors in mind for the job the hub is expected to perform. You have fewer reasons for a wheel to failure if you respect the technical design and specifications associated with specific wheel components.
We build lots of custom wheels on Phil Wood track hubs usually laced to Velocity Deep V rims. You certainly get what you pay for. They are long-lasting, bomb-proof urban riding hoop on which you can roll and race for many years. If you want your front Phil Wood track hub radially laced, stop by the shop or email. Before shipping anything, email, and check to see that we have the rim you want in stock. (The non-machined Velocity Deep V rims in colors go like hotcakes.) If the rim is in stock we can usually lace your hub to a Deep V and put your new wheel into UPS within 5 days of receiving your hub.
