Hey, guys --
Lots of opinions, lots of bluster, but very little justification for what folks have written and nobody seems to consider anything other than nose strut wear.
Can we take the discussion up a few notches?
Ed
Ok,
Here is one that hasn't been mentioned yet.
Lifting the nose wheel off the runway as early as possible increases the rudder effectiveness when countering a cross wind.
Because tri gear RV's have a free castoring nose wheel, leaving it on the ground does not improve directional steering ability like a steerable nose wheel does on other aircraft.
In fact, it actually induces additional turning tendency.
When the airplane yaws from forces induced by p factor or cross wind, the nose wheel turns, causing the airplane to steer even more in the undesired direction.
If the nose wheel is lifted above the runway (even 1/4"). This influence is removed.
This is most noticeable in the RV-12 because it has a relatively large vertical tail area for its size, and has less HP (equals lower velocity prop blast having an influence on the rudder). On the RV-12, the yaw controlability at low speed early in a take-off run with a strong left cross wind (worse case because that causes additional yaw influence in the direction that p factor / torque are already inducing) is increased by about 30% (my personal guess.... not a scientifically derived value) if the nose wheel is lifted as early as possible.
The difference is less with other RV models but still noticeable.
In conditions that most people would consider flying in, there is not usually a control-ability problem if the nose wheel is left on the ground, but lifting it does add additional rudder authority that could be very useful in gusty conditions if hit by a sudden strong gust from the left.