Lacing Pattern Help/Confusion...?

3 cross is the proven pattern. With large flange hubs (bigger than you get these days) you can lace 4 cross, which is supposedly stiffer, but there's no real evidence it's actually stronger (the spokes cross more, spreading the tension across more spokes, relieving some tension in certain areas). You can't (or shouldn't) lace 4 cross with smaller flanges, because the spokes will cross too close to the flange, putting extra strain on the spokes and flange.
As for lacing patterns, you can use straigt, 1 cross, 2 cross, 3 cross, 4 cross, twist spokes (or snowflake). Certain road bike and mtb hubs lace entirely differently where the spokes don't actually come into contact with each other (which seems like a gimmicky backward idea to me)

3 cross is perfectly fine, there's no need to even think about lacing a wheel any other way.

gsport and bsd use a cross lace where spokes go form one side of the hub to the other side of the rim

aussiebmxer wrote:

gsport and bsd use a cross lace where spokes go form one side of the hub to the other side of the rim

Yeah the alienation runaway uses that too. It's supposedly stiffer but my old runaway was shit. It's still the same lacing pattern though, you just have to lace it properly so you get that cross over at the rim.
The way I see it, having built literally hundreds of wheels, is that with stiffness, you lose flex (obviously), and that's not necessarily a good thing. Allowing a bit of flex reduces the chances of snapping spokes, snapping flanges, pulling nipples through etc. Because let's face it, every bmxer puts far too much tension in their spokes as it is. Under certain stresses, something will have to go, and I'd rather true a wheel than have to replace parts