I made just that switch and found the Flo 60 to be a lot easier to handle in gusty side winds. The PX 50 could be a real handful past farm gates etc, but the Flo has a much more muted response. I'd pretty much ride the Flo 60 in any conditions.

Thanks Nobbie.

Having ridden the 60, how do you think an 80mm rim of the same/very similar design would compare to the PX50?
The only toroidal wheels I've ridden are the FLO30s, so I don't have much to go on.

Given the difference between the PX50 and the Flo60, I'd guess that an 80 of similar design would still be better in crosswinds than the PX50.

Forgot to add, the biggest difference in how deep wheels handle is how often you ride them. The more you ride them, the better you learn to react to the movements without massive over corrections which are usually what get you in trouble.

Depends really. For the most part a toroidal shape will be a bit easier to handle than a traditional V. Thing is, the best deep sections I've ever used in windy conditions are the Reynolds Aero 72 (as well as the RZR 92) and they're about the deepest V you get.

I have a couple friends running the 62mm Swiss Sides and they love them, so I'd lean that way as Flo gets on my tits.

lol, why does flo get on your tits?

to the OP, i have had the flo 60 and 90 front for about 2 years. In that time there have been only 3 occasions in which the 90 would have been a bit too squirrelly to use. If it gets windy as hell on occasion where you live, then go with the 60. I have the 60 front because i road race as well. Local races i use the 60 as well. Bigger races, or races i care about a bit more, i will use the 90 to gain every poofteenth of a second advantage

Too many Flo nut-swingers. "Did you get into the Flo sale 4,327? No? Well I did. I got the disc and 90 as well as two pairs of 30's which I'm going to put on my Subaru".

Thanks all

I've been doing a bit of reading on the time savings between the two.
After having seen this chart:


I'm definitely going to go with a ~60mm wheel.
I won't be buying both depths, so would rather lose 4-5sec/hour and have something that I can ride in any conditions with confidence.

As I understand the Flo and Swisside wheels weren't really designed with cross-wind performance as a primary design parameter. The HED SCT, Zipp FC and FS, Smart ENVE, Mavic, and maybe the Bontragers and Specialized wheels have some legitimate design and testing work done for cross-wind performance.

I have heard people rave about how much better the Firestrikes are than the FC in a crosswind, so if you are worried about handling and want to go with a 90, then I would at least consider looking for something like a used set of Jet 90s.

I feel no difference between my Chinese 50's which are basically V shaped and my Jet 60's (2008ish)

Those are 650 wheels.

jaretj

I don't know if I am doing something wrong (very possible) but I ran the numbers just for the Hadron 485 @ 45km/hr with a 9W reduction.

I plugged everything into analyticcycling.com and got a reduction of 26 seconds, not 1 minute and 26 seconds.

Can someone double check my numbers?

-Jason

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Ride Scoozy Electric Bicycles
http://www.RideScoozy.com

First, they're citing time savings for a *pair*

Second, using ye 'ol 50grams of drag= 5w = 0.5sec/km I get ~1:12 time savings for a pair.

My 60mm chinese wheels (V) are twitchier than my 808 firecrests.

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Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede

My daily drivers are an older pair of Edge (Enve) 45s that are v-shaped. They are almost always fine, but are more likely to "twitch" in gusty winds - like riding across the Golden Gate bridge. I have also spend a good amount of time on a Flo 90 and while they are predictable (less twitchy), they are susceptible to get "pushed" more. Feels less like someone is ripping the bars out of your hands and more of just moving your whole bike left or right.

I think a u-shaped 60mm wheel is the "right" call for 90+% of triathletes. The rub is that the only time deeper wheels are significantly faster is on the windy days when you don't want to use them.

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/kj

http://kjmcawesome.tumblr.com/

Note that the Reynolds Aero and RZR line are not "V" profiles, they are aero profiles which is a big difference.

A cylinder with a trailing wedge is a horrible profile aerodynamically speaking, but a properly chosen airfoil is not.

what are you using on the rear? it will make a big difference.

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

The footnote for the "Drag Reduction" column also indicates the savings for a set though. So one of the two values or notation is off.

Funny thing, I'm currently on Hed Stinger 6's for race wheels and used to ride cosmic carbon 80mm (narrower, v shaped). I felt gusts more on the deep wheel, but when going really fast into a slight cross wind or a head wind. Situations like a mountain descent the old wheels felt stable or at least presented a uniform feeling push, new wheels I feel like I'm being pushed left then right left then right..... twitchy. I dunno what explains it, but I don't like them as much for going really fast in bunches as the old ones.

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Jordan Oroshiba --- Roadie invading Triathlete space for knowledge access