January 28, 2014

FLO Cycling - The Great Debate - Aero vs. Weight

Posted by FLO Cycling at Tuesday, January 28, 2014 Labels: ,

"What will save you more time?"  Improving the aerodynamics or decreasing the weight of your wheel set?  Jon and I have probably been asked this question hundreds if not thousands of times since starting FLO.  When designing FLO wheels, we focused primarily on aerodynamics.  We did that because in almost every situation possible, aerodynamics have a far greater impact on time saved than weight.  However, I don't just want to claim that.  In true FLO Cycling fashion, I want to do my best to prove that fact.  To do that, I asked a very smart friend to help me out.  

Help from a Friend
Ryan Cooper has a Ph.D. in math.  He does the kind of math that makes even engineering math look easy.  His area of study focuses on optimization mathematics and he has used that skill to develop a very cool web application called "Best Bike Split."  Best Bike Split has the ability to take in a ton of data like the rider's FTP, weight, their bike set up, including wheels, tires, and position, and then predict a bike split for a particular course.  This software is surprisingly accurate.  I've seen Ryan predict IM and HIM bike splits within a minute several times.  He's right almost all of the time.  If you'd like to learn more about Best Bike Split, be sure to check out our Interview with Ryan where he gives details about how the software works.  

The Study
The goal was to determine whether aerodynamics or weight save you more time when selecting cycling wheels.  To do that, Ryan and I created a list of potential race day wheel set ups.  The wheel set ups ranged from lightweight and non-aero to not lightweight and very aero.  

 We then ran a virtual rider through some of the most popular Ironman courses and some "extreme" courses using each of the wheel set ups.  When all of the test runs were completed, we compared the times.

 Be sure to read the follow up article for more courses!
Part 3 is now live featuring our 2016 model wheels!

The Ironman Courses
The first three courses that we selected where some of the better known Ironman Courses.  We selected a course that was flat, one that had rolling hills, and one that had a long, steady climb.  Weight becomes more important on hilly courses so we wanted to include hilly courses to give weight the biggest advantage possible.  Here are the Ironman Courses we selected.  

The Flat Course - Ironman Florida
Distance: 112 miles
Total Gain: 991 feet

The Rolling Course - Ironman Coeur d'Alene
Distance: 112 miles
Total Gain: 4804 feet

The Long Climb Course - Ironman Lake Placid
Distance: 112 miles
Total Gain: 4612 feet

The Extreme Courses
Because we so firmly believe that aerodynamics are more important, we also selected two courses known for being some of the hilliest courses you will find.  Here they are.  

SavageMan 70
Distance: 55.7 miles
Total Gain: 6717 feet

Alpe d'Huez
Distance: 8.2 miles
Total Gain: 3514 feet
Average Grade: 8.1%

 The Wheel Sets

 The Aero Wheels
FLO 30/30: 1624 grams
FLO 60/90: 2074 grams
FLO 90/DISC: 2259 grams

The "Un-Aero" Wheels
We created two hypothetical non-aero wheel sets that varied only in weight.  The aerodynamic properties given to this wheel were that of a common training wheel like a Mavic Open Pro.  

Light Training Wheel: 1100 grams
Heavy Training Wheel: 2259 grams

The Rider
We simulated a rider that we felt resembled a good majority of male age group athletes.  This allowed us to keep things realistic and useful for our largest group of readers.  Here is the athlete profile.  

Rider Weight - 170lbs
Rider FTP - 250 watts
Bike 1 - Cervelo P2
Bike 2 - Cervelo S5 (used only on the Alpe d'Huez simulation)

 We will assume that this rider will ride all of the courses at 75% of his FTP with the exception of the Alpe d'Huez.  On the Alpe d'Huez the rider will exert a 100% FTP effort.

The Results

 The Ironman Courses
A baseline time has been set for each Ironman course below.  The time for the "Heavy" Training wheel to complete the course was used as the baseline time.  We then compared all other wheel sets to the baseline to see whether improving aerodynamics or decreasing weight had a bigger influence on the time saved. 

Ironman Florida
Ironman Florida Bike Course Elevation
Baseline Time
Training Wheel (Heavy Version 2259 grams) : Time on Course : 5 hr 21 min 44 sec

Time Saved by Improving Only Weight
Training Wheel (Light Version 1100 grams) : Time on Course : 5 hr 21 min 42 sec
Time Saved = 2 sec

 Time Saved by Improving Only Aerodynamics
FLO 90/DISC (2259 grams): Time on Course : 5 hr 12 min 55 sec
Time Saved = 529 sec = 8 min 49 sec


Other FLO Wheels

FLO 30/30 (1624 grams) : Time on Course : 5 hr 15 min 28 sec
Time Saved = 376 sec = 6 min 16 sec

 FLO 60/90 (2074 grams) : Time on Course : 5 hr 14 min 10 sec
Time Saved = 454 sec = 7 min 34 sec




Ironman Coeur d'Alene
Ironman Coeur d'Alene Bike Course Elevation
Baseline Time
Training Wheel (Heavy Version 2259 grams) : Time on Course : 6 hr 01 min 36 sec

Time Saved by Improving Only Weight
Training Wheel (Light Version 1100 grams) : Time on Course : 5 hr 59 min 54 sec
Time Saved = 102 sec = 1 min 42 sec

 Time Saved by Improving Only Aerodynamics
FLO 90/DISC (2259 grams) : Time on Course : 5 hr 55 min 46 sec
Time Saved = 350 sec = 5 min 50 sec


Other FLO Wheels

FLO 30/30 (1624 grams) : Time on Course : 5 hr 56 min 48 sec
Time Saved = 288 sec = 4 min 48 sec

 FLO 60/90 (2074 grams) : Time on Course : 5 hr 56 min 11 sec
Time Saved = 325 sec = 5 min 25 sec



Ironman Lake Placid
Ironman Lake Placid Bike Course Elevation
Baseline Time
Training Wheel (Heavy Version 2259 grams) : Time on Course : 6 hr 00 min 11 sec

Time Saved by Improving Only Weight
Training Wheel (Light Version 1100 grams) : Time on Course : 5 hr 58 min 39 sec
Time Saved = 92 sec = 1 min 32 sec


Time Saved by Improving Only Aerodynamics

FLO 90/DISC (2259 grams) : Time on Course : 5 hr 51 min 45 sec
Time Saved = 506 sec = 8 min 26 sec

Other FLO Wheels

FLO 30/30 (1624 grams) : Time on Course : 5 hr 53 min 35 sec
Time Saved = 396 sec = 6 min 36 sec

FLO 60/90 (2074 grams) : Time on Course : 5 hr 52 min 26 sec

Time Saved = 465sec = 7 min 45 sec



The Extreme Courses
For the extreme courses we ran fewer trial runs.  We ran the 1100 gram Light Training Wheel set and the FLO 90/DISC.  Our goal was to see if weight could beat aerodynamics.

 EDIT: I had a few readers asking for additional FLO 30 data.  I have added the FLO 30 data to the Alpe d'Huez climb.  They actually win!


SavageMan

This is one of the hilliest Half Ironman courses in the world.  If you were to turn this course into an full Ironman, you would net 13,434 feet of climbing.  That is nearly three times hillier than Ironman Lake Placid!  What wheels do you think won?
SavageMan 70 Bike Course Elevation
The "Un-Aero" Wheels
Light Training Wheels (1100 grams) : 3 hr 20 min 43 sec

The Aero Wheels
FLO 90/DISC (2259 grams) : 3 hr 19 min 39 sec


That's right.  Aero wins again.  Even with an additional 1159 grams (2.55 lbs) of wheels on one of the hilliest courses in the world, aerodynamics will save you 64 seconds.



Alpe d'Huez

So there has to be a breaking point, right?  Weight has to win somewhere.  It turns out it does, but you need one of the most extreme climbs in the world to make it happen.  The Alpe d'Huez is one of the toughest climbs in pro cycling.  To give you an idea of just how big the climb is, I superimposed the climb over top of the full Ironman Coeur d'Alene course.  Remember, this climb takes place in only 8.2 miles and it absolutely dwarfs the IMCDA climbs.  Can you imagine climbing this!
The Alpe d'Huez Superimposed on top of IMCDA


The "Un-Aero" Wheels
Light Training Wheels (1100 grams) : 1:09:46

The Aero Wheels
FLO 90/DISC (2259 grams) : 1:10:09

 EDITED: The FLO 30s were added after a reader asked to see it.  They actually win by two seconds!

FLO 30/30 (1624 grams) : 1:09:44


Even on arguably the toughest climb in the world, aerodynamics only lose 23 seconds to weight.

For the triathletes out there, I think this blog article pretty confidently tells you that when selecting wheels you should focus on aerodynamics first.  Unless, of course, you are racing up the Alpe d'Huez to T2.  Road cyclists, racing TTs, crits, and stage races - apart from mountain stages - are also going to save more time 99.9% of the time by choosing aerodynamics over weight.  I don't mean to say that weight has no importance at all, because it does.  I'm just simply stating that aerodynamics helps you save significantly more time than weight.

I hope this blog article has given you enough knowledge to make better decisions come race day.  Partnering with Ryan to create these course simulations was really a lot of fun.  I'd love to hear your questions and comments below.

Take care,

Chris
Read More

January 24, 2014

FLO Cycling - Order #10 Starts January 30 at 10:00am PDT!

Posted by FLO Cycling at Friday, January 24, 2014 Labels:


Order #10 is Here - All of the Details!

It's official!  Our first order of 2014 will begin Thursday, January 30th at 10:00am PDT.  All orders placed within the first hour will receive a FREE FLO t-shirt (see picture below).  One t-shirt will be given for each order.  Please read the details below for "General Information" and FAQ about Order #10.  We can't thank you enough for your support and patience.   


General Information
  • Order #10 begins January 30, 2014 at 10:00am PDT.  Access the store here.  You will need a store account to check out.  You can create your account here.
  • On January 30, 2014 the "Store" page will feature a countdown timer.  When it hits 00:00:00:00, refresh your page to begin shopping.
  • 650 wheels will be available during Order #10.  
  • We will have FLO 30s, 60s, and 90s available during Order #10.  There will be 20 FLO DISC available during Order #10.  We're sorry!  We have 75 planned for Order #11 in March.
  • Wheels are estimated to ship the first week of February.  
  • There are currently 1,098 people signed up for Order #10.    
  • All sales are on a first-come-first-served basis.  We are working hard to eventually have stock.  For more information, please read this blog article.
  • Orders tend to sell out quickly.  All six 2013 Orders sold out in less then one hour.  We suggest being online at 9:55am PDT if you are interested in buying wheels.  Please know there is no pressure to buy, we just want to be honest.
  • Order #11 is scheduled to take place in mid March 2014 and is estimated to have approximately 650 wheels.
  • You are not guaranteed a wheel when adding it to the cart.  You must check out to confirm your order.  
Questions About Order #10
Q1.  How and where do I place my order?
A1.  The store opens at 10:00am PDT.  On the morning of the order, the store page will have a countdown timer on it.  When the count down timer hits 00:00:00:00, refresh your page to access the store and begin shopping!


Note*  You will need to create an account to shop in our online store.  We highly recommend creating an account before next Thursday to save time during Order #10.  You can create your account here.  
Q2.  Do we have live up to date inventory on our site?
A2.  That’s sort of a yes and no question.  When you select the product you will see how many are available under the “Bearings or Bearing/Build” pulldown menus (The “Sticker Color” pulldown does not show how many wheels are in stock.).  If there is one left and you add it to your cart, it does not mean you have secured the wheel.  You must make it all the way through the cart before the wheel is yours.  If someone else has bought the wheel in that amount of time, you will receive an out of stock warning when you hit the confirm order button.
Q3.  My page is really slow, what should I do?  (We hope this doesn’t happen!)
A3.  We have done all we can to beef up the server to prevent crashing.  That said there are no guarantees.  When you click to add a wheel to your cart it may take a second or two to load.  Please do NOT hit the "Add to Cart" button multiple times.  If you do you will add more then one wheel to your shopping cart.  If there are any technical difficulties during the sale, please be patient, we will be working to correct them as soon as humanly possible.  If you page is slow after hitting “confirm order” PLEASE DO NOT HIT REFRESH or your card may be charged twice.  If you do hit refresh by mistake and are double charged, please let us know and we will be sure to refund your second order.
Q4.  Which t-shirts are going to be available?
A4.  Free FLO t-shirts will be given for each order placed during the first hour.  Each wheel page will have a dropdown for you to select your t-shirt size.  One t-shirt will be given for each order.  
              Stealth Logo                               
Q5.  When will the wheels ship to me?
A5.  Wheels are estimated to ship the first week of February. 
Q6.  How much are ceramic bearings?
A6.  Ceramic wheels are an additional $100 per wheel.  Ceramic bearings support our Bike for a Kid Program and have excellent durability.  Learn more about our Bike for a Kid Program.
Q7.  Do you offer Shimano 11 speed hub bodies?
A7.  All wheels except the FLO DISC now ship with Shimano 11 speed hub bodies.  We hope to have 11 speed hub bodies for the FLO DISC during Order #11.  The 11 speed hub body also comes with a spacer to convert it to a 10 speed hub body.  
Q8.  What payment methods do you accept?
A8.  We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.  We do not accept PayPal.
We hope that this answers your questions about the upcoming order.  If we have left anything out please let us know.
Thanks again for your patience and support.
Take care,
Jon and Chris
Read More

January 22, 2014

FLO Cycling - 2013 Year in Review

Posted by FLO Cycling at Wednesday, January 22, 2014 Labels: ,

There's something great about a new year.  I love being able to crunch the numbers for the previous year and plan ahead for the new one.  2012 was our first sales year and when the year was complete, we published a blog article that reviewed the year.  We did the same thing for 2013.  Here's what happened in 2013 and what we are planning for 2014.

This article will be broken down into three sections.  

Section 1 - Sales Data, Shipping Info, and Other Cool Stuff
Section 2 - Social Media Website Growth
Section 3 - Our Thoughts for 2014

Section 1 - Sales Data, Shipping Info, and Other Cool Stuff

Number of Wheels Sold
At the end of 2012 we had sold 1,500 wheels.  In 2013 we sold and additional 3,356 wheels bringing our company total to 4,856.  Our sales to date have far surpassed any of our wildest expectations.  




Number of Bike for a Kid Donations
In 2013 we sponsored the Newton Running Ironman Foundation Triathlon Team.  We followed athletes from the team to three races where we donated bikes and helmets to less fortunate kids.  In 2013, we donated 254 bikes and helmets.  This brings our total to 370.  Our Bike for a Kid Program is still one of my favorite things we do at FLO. 




Number of Orders Placed at FLO Cycling
Over the last couple of years, Chris and I have gotten a lot better at processing orders.  Chris is the inspector/boxer and I am the sticker guy.  During Pre Order #1 we could process about 80 wheels per day.  During Pre-Order #9 we set a new record and processed 328 wheels in one day.  Getting faster makes fulfilling orders easier, which is a good thing.  In 2012 we had 788 orders.  This year we processed 1,899 orders. 




Number of Countries Where FLO Wheels have Shipped
I always love adding a new country to the list.  We added 17 additional countries to the list in 2013.  It's amazing to think that Chris and I may never set foot in many of the countries where our wheels have shipped.  It's really cool to see how an idea can spread across the globe.





Other Cool Stuff
Here are a few interesting facts about the year.  

Top 5 Countries by Number of Orders Placed
1.  USA - 78.2.0%
2.  Canada - 7.53%
3.  UK - 3.16%
4.  Australia - 2.63%
5.  Denmark - 1.42%

Total Number of Stickers Placed on Wheels (I never thought I'd be a professional sticker layer)
2012 - 6000
2013 - 15,148
Total - 21,148 

Top Three Wheels According to Sales
1.  Front FLO 60
2.  Rear FLO 90
3.  Front FLO 30

Number of Pre-Orders: 6
Number of Jelly Fish Stings: 1 (Yes, Chris got one in Taiwan)
Max Number of Gigabytes our Server used at one time: 150
Number of Website Crashes: 0 (OH YEAH!  I hope this doesn't jinx us for next year.)
Cumulative Number of Emails Sent and Received: 130,000
Number of U-Hauls Rented: 8
Number of Burritos Consumed During Shipping Weeks: I don't want to know, lol.
Number of FLO Cycling iPhone App Users: 2,634
Number of FLO Cycling iPhone App Sessions: 69,267
Favorite Sticker Color: Stealth Black
Number of Countries that have Visited our Website: 164

Section 2 - Social Media and Website Growth

Social media is important to us.  It's the number one way we interact with our customers and bring traffic to our site.  If our social presence grows the hope is that our business will as well.  This year that happened.  Below you will find the cumulative growth of our various social media accounts and our website.

Facebook Likes
In 2013 we reached 4,372 likes on Facebook.  This is up 105.74% from 2012.  


Any guesses to the most popular post on Facebook for 2013?  Andy Murray Winning Wimbledon.  Congrats, Andy.



Twitter Followers
We also had good growth on Twitter.  We added 683 followers this year for a new total of 1,493.  


Any idea who has the most followers on Twitter?  Katy Perry has 49,321,818.  We're getting close, aren't we? ;)



YouTube Subscribers and Video Views
I am not sure what happened in 2013, but YouTube was our biggest gainer for the year.  Our subscribers grew by 450.23% and our video views grew by 226.75%.  This brings our totals to 1,172 and 230,644, respectively.  



I am pretty sure everyone knew Psy dominated YouTube last year, but I had no idea who took the prize this year.  Did you?  Ylvis's The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?) with 326,498,067 views.  Yeah, I am not sure I get it either.



FLO Cycling Website Visitors and Number of Page Views
Chris and I started a business before FLO that did not work very well.  The biggest issue was that we had no idea how to market and as a result, no one came to visit our website.  For that reason, we are pretty focused on keeping traffic steady at flocycling.com.  This year our site traffic grew at rate we are proud of.  The total number of visits we had by the end of the year was 376,933 with a total of 1,800,020 page views.  Since we use Blogger, our blog has a different set of metrics.  This year we had 365,079 page views on our blog.




Following the theme above, does anyone know which website had the most traffic this year?  I guessed Facebook but it's actually Google.  Looks like they are still the king of the internet.  Maybe they do need these mystery barge/floating data centers. 



FLO Cycling Newsletter Subscribers
A good friend of mine once told me that if you have an email list of 10,000 subscribers, that you are set for life.  Well, we're certainly not set for life but, I think our email list is reaching a nice size.  This year we passed the 10,000 subscribers mark with 13,905 email subscribers by the end of the year.  


Since I don't have access to other people's email lists I had to come up with another interesting fact.  We use MailChimp to send out our email campaigns.  Any guess at the number of emails that they sent this year?  They claim 70,000,000,000.  Yeah, billion.  That is nuts, or bananas in their case!



Section 3 - Our Thoughts for 2014

Where do we go from here?  Good question.  Chris and I never thought that FLO would accomplish what it has in the short time we've been in business.  Each day we are presented with new challenges that force us to be creative and become better business owners.  This is a great thing.

One of our biggest challenges to date has been adjusting to rapid growth.  Typically, growth is considered a good thing but there are also negatives associated with growing too quickly.  We have done our best not only to increase production, but to keep our high standards of quality our main priority.  It's not easy and there have certainly been some frustrated customers but we are doing our best to keep the number of positive customer experiences MUCH greater than the number of negative ones.  

When you are growing plans can often times feel useless, but that doesn't mean we don't plan for the year.  When things change - which they have - we are learning to adapt as quickly as possible.  Today, here is our best guess at a 2014 plan. 

Number of Wheel Shipments and Orders (Pre-Orders will be called Orders this year)
This year we plan to ship eight containers of wheels and will offer Orders every six weeks.  If we catch up with inventory then we will stock the cart and offer sales on daily basis. 

Number of Wheels We'd Like to Sell
Our goal for the year is 5,000.

Warehouse and Employees
This year we plan to move into a warehouse and hire our first employees to help with processing orders.  

FLO 30 Rim Sales
If all goes according to plan, we hope to start selling FLO 30 rims by themselves.  Stay tuned for more information.  

New Products and Future Development
I can tell you that we are diligently working on a new product.  What I can't tell you is what the product is OR if it will ultimately come to fruition.  If things go as we expect, we should release details later in the year.  We are pretty sure you'll love the new product. ;)

Thanks for reading.  We are very fortunate to be where we are and to have customers like you.  Bring on 2014!

Take care,

Jon
Read More

January 15, 2014

FLO Cycling - Interview with Zen Triathlon

Posted by FLO Cycling at Wednesday, January 15, 2014 Labels:


During the Christmas holidays we were honored to have the opportunity to sit down for a discussion with Brett from zentriathlon.com.  Our interview details the trials and tribulations of bringing a new product to market, our current product, and what is in store down the road.  Be sure to check it out at the link below.


We hope you enjoy the podcast.  Let us know what you think and if you have any questions in the comments section below.

Take care,

Chris
Read More
Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )