Spoke count for a light rider?

[Jugi]

[offtopic]
The EC90SL I have is radial on the NDS, 3x cross on the DS and there is a remarkable tension difference between them. Years back I came across a maintenance manual for those wheels, and it claimed something in the direction of "when re-tensioning the DS, the wheel should be sent for factory maintenance". I don't remember the numbers, but it is meant to have seriously high tension on the DS because of the spoke geometry. It will always run out of dish to the NDS, and my technique is to loosen the NDS slightly to get some "working room", tighten & straighten with the DS and then finally achieve dish by tightening the NDS, hoping it will stay straight and not wonder off.
[/offtopic]

[alcatraz]

Are the spokes bladed or round? I ask because it also sounds like the DS is so highly tensioned that you have some wound up spokes that later unwind.

[Jugi]

[offtopic]
It's built with round spokes and I take care not to wound the spokes up. Of course it's hard to prevent any wound up when dealing with high tension and round spokes, but I'd say I have a decent technique for that. Last time around one spoke gave up (spun around itself) so I had to replace that.
[/offtopic]

[jfranci3]

That's a good observation. Maybe your riding style could benefit from a more solid build. Then again it's not hard for a light alloy wheelset to come out of true. Was it an alloy wheelset?

The best example of this was an Easton EC90 Aero rear wheel, as I had (and still have) a comparable Easton EC90 SL rear wheel. Both tubular, both had the same model hub, the Aero had 20 spokes (55mm carbon rim) and the SL has 24 spokes (38mm carbon rim). The Aero wouldn't stay completely straight for more than 500 km at a time. The SL stays straight easily for 1-2 seasons (4000-6000 km). Only problem with that wheel is that it drifts out of dish slowly, so it needs some work once a season.

That particular Aero rim may have had some kind of a fault in it, but again it was a good example as I had something to compare it to which was used and maintained in the same fashion.

My Fulcrum had flat spokes that spun. My newer DT Swiss wheel has their locking nipples; all 48 straight pull spokes are straight and taught after 10k km+. Locking nipples are the only way to fly with flat spokes.

[RocketRacing]

I went with 20/24, mainly because it made sense, and it works for the hubs i settled on (carbon ti)