wrote:

While I was enjoying the current incarnation of the stand-or-hang
thread, I found myself wondering what the spokes and the rim will do
if you stick a wheel up in the air and hang a weight from the rim
section that would normally be the contact patch.

That point in the wheel will tend to be lower than all other points on
the wheel. Unless of course you neglect to actually attach the wheel
to something when you "stick it up in the air", in which case it will
invariably fall to the ground in a random but unavoidable fashion, and
the weighted portion could end in almost any position.

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $795 ti frame