To start this off, FLO is not paying me or giving me any wheels for free to write this. I’m more than willing to answer any questions about my experience with the wheel but I’ll be on iPhone power for the next 5 days so responses will be slow and short.
Second a little background on me. Been doing triathlon 10 years and have done every distance (except ultra), bike racing 7 years and currently a CAT 2 but getting back more to the triathlon roots this year. I regularly train on some form of a 32 spoke wheel, in the past it’s been Mavic OP’s (gone through a few sets of those), currently my regular trainers are DT Swiss wheels on Record hubs, but I’ve also trained on Campy Shamals, OEM shimano wheels, Alex Rims, FSA (and I’m sure I’m missing a few others) but if I have my way it’s a solid 32 spoke wheel with a nice hub. I’ve been racing on Enve Composites (road and tri) for the previous 2 years, this is my 3rd road season on those but switched to a Renn Disc and trispoke front for TT/Tri. Before that I’ve used Zipp 404’s (tri only) and HED 3’s (tri only). Current weight is about 176lbs.
I had the opportunity to test ride a front FLO 90 wheel (thanks Jon and Chris). Initial impression when I opened the box was WOW…this wheel is way nicer than I expected. Couple of things I learned right away; 90mm is a DEEP wheel and I was going to need to track down either some long valve extensions or a long valve…so a couple of 80mm valve tubes, and a 40mm valve extension later and I was in business. Second thing was the magnet location. I ride a 65mm wheel normally and the magnet is right at the edge of where the spoke and wheel meet, I wasn’t going to adjust my sensor for this ride so if you ask about speed/power/HR in comparison don’t ask because I don’t have it…sorry.
Third thing I noticed was wow that wheel is wide, and man that fairing is thin…not paper thin, but when your used a deep carbon wheel as structure, a fairing seems much thinner.
This is their prototype wheel so I knew what to expect based on their comments on here and Jon telling me in advance…let me just say for a wheel that was assembled in your garage, well done gentlemen…yes the spoke holes are big, the valve stem hole is too and the fairing is not exactly perfectly lined up on the rim, but this was way better then I expected and I would easily pay $300-$400 for this wheel.
The hub…well it’s black and it spins…honestly I think it’s hard to determine if a hub is good just from a few rides unless you go from an old crappy hub to a nice quality new hub. But holding it in my hand it spins smooth, is adjusted properly (not too tight and no play) and rode very well. Only time will tell but I’m sure it will be fine.
Weight…he posted them but in my hand it felt comparable to my Enve 65mm clincher
Overall Appearance…love it…love the silver spokes and keep the black brake tracks (I’m gonna try and wear that down by the way).
I decided to mount it on my road bike because I’m using it in a draft legal race this weekend (Armed Forces Triathlon). I ride Michelin PR3 so I mounted it and my 120mm stemmed tube with no problem’s, not any harder or easier to mount than any other wheel I’ve used it on. The tire was older so it was definitely easier than a new tire though.
I hopped on my bike and headed out to Fiesta Island to test it out. Wind in San Diego at that time was about 9-10 mph (per the weather channel) and the loops on Fiesta would give me the opportunity to test that 90mm wheel at every wind angle to see how it handled. Immediately I could tell this was a solid wheel. No creaking, no flexing and it was a very stable, smooth ride. I took as many corners as I could as hard and fast as possible trying to flex the wheel and get it to flex and rub the brakes, no luck. Got out and sprinted, no luck. Initial impression…these are good wheels.
It’s a 3 mile ride there and about 1 mile in I realized I needed to bring other wheels with me to get a good comparison of how this 90mm wheel handles in a crosswind. I got in my warm up out to there, did two short laps, then went back, got my truck, my Enve Composites 65mm clincher, and a Specialized Trispoke all with a Michelin PR3 tire (trispoke is a 20mm tire vice a 23mm) and headed back to Fiesta.
During those two laps this is what I noticed. Did I feel the wind, yes, but it was pretty windy out and I wasn’t riding a 32 hole box rim so no matter what your on if it’s deep your gonna feel it. Gusts of wind obviously affected it more than a steady wind, but at no time did I feel like I couldn’t handle this in my normal riding/racing conditions, to include Fiesta Island winds. I like the way it handled, I don’t know what it was but it rode smooth and cornered very well. It was torsionally stiff, so that definitely helped but even going straight it was a nice smooth stable ride.
After I got back I started doing some wheel swapping.
First up was the tri spoke. From the initial ride to the trispoke it seemed like I could feel less wind pushing me around, however 30 minutes had passed so obviously wind could have changed. I did two more laps on that wheel. The trispoke defintely didn’t ride as nice (no kidding with a 20mm vice 23mm tire) but it didn’t track as smoothly either. Trispoke vs FLO 90…winner FLO 90
Next was the Enve Composites 65mm clincher. Now this wheel felt much more stable then the trispoke. Spun up faster, and just rode nicer. Definitely could feel it more in the crosswinds. I did two laps again on this wheel. Enve 65 vs FLO 90…undecided
Finally I went back to the Flo 90 for a couple final laps and a cool down. What I noticed now was that this spun up very quickly, quicker than the Enve…mmmm I don’t know but quite possibly; It was extremely stable and smooth to ride (yes more than the Enve 65) and in the crosswind was stable, but did move around a bit like I mentioned before…I would say it was comparable to the Enve 65mm in regards to how much I felt it pushed me around. FLO 90 vs Enve 65…Winner FLO 90.
I’ll take it out on my TT bike tomorrow so check back for round two and see how that turns out. Honestly I’m tempted to sell my carbon wheels and buy a 60mm set for road racing, a 90/Disc for TT/Triathlon…that’s how impressed I was.
Finally since I’m on an iPhone I can email someone some pictures if they want to post them. Let me know what you want to see angles or close-ups of and send me your email address.
Cheers
Greg
