I wonder if those have less or more breakin issues compared to spokes. With a spoke you have to reset the angle of the bend to the shortest distance between the hub and the rim. But with cables they have to settle in along their entire length.
Doesn’t change the answer. They’re still compressing. They’re just pretensioned.
There's a lot more creep early on, which is compensated for by a staged tensioning over the course of a few days. They may require the spoke holes in the hub to be radiused, which can be a warranty issue between you and the hub manufacturer. Windup is controlled by a flat on the small bit of spoke used for threads.
They're ok (i.e., made it through Tour Divide with no issues), done well they're certainly better than badly done steel spokes, but it's not clear if the best builds are better than the best steel builds.
There are two situations when you can push on a string. One is when it’s frozen, and the other when it’s tensioned. How do you unload a bow string? You push it off the notches.
bro. you're wrong. just build a bicycle wheel some time. it becomes very obvious how they work as you take it through the various stages of tensioning.
Why do you think someone would talk about Brandt’s work if they hadn’t used it?
I’ve built more than half a dozen bicycle wheels. My set, my spare that my brother road (into the ground - my first set and practically the only problematic ones, but he road over bumps without getting out of the saddle), a set my dad commissioned from me, and a pair that he had me build for a friend. All by age 17.
I then worked as a mechanic for two summers of college. I was never the fastest, but if we had a customer we could not afford to disappoint, I or the senior mechanic got the job because my repairs did not come back.
I saved three or four wheels that would have been scrap by unwinding the spokes halfway and building it back up again like a wheel build. Only added an extra ten or fifteen minutes but it works a charm. When a good customer comes in on Wednesday before an out of town bike ride you can’t afford to fuck it up. I think I only built a couple professionally, and usually singles. That’s a lot of labor and few will pay.
Doesn’t change the answer. They’re still compressing. They’re just pretensioned.