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The Great Bike Wheel Debate – Aero vs. Weight
Legacy Article: The data discussed in this article is taken from our previous generation of wheels. “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…
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Aero vs. Weight – Follow Up
Legacy Article: The data discussed in this article is taken from our previous generation of wheels. We wrote a blog article at the end of January titled “The Great Debate – Aero vs. Weight.” To write the article, we partnered with Ryan Cooper – the brains behind Best Bike Split – to simulate the…
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Aerodynamic Cycling Wheel Tutorial
Updated: 12/30/2022 Deep carbon fiber cycling wheels are faster due to better aerodynamics. While that’s a known fact understanding why they are faster is something most people do not understand. In fact, the right wheel, in the right situation can actually act like a sail and propel you forward. Yes, you heard that right, a…
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Studying Bike Tires Part 1, Logging Data
For a while now, I’ve wanted to study the aerodynamic performance of tires on the road. We’ve done a bit of work in a wind tunnel, which is great, but it’s not the real world. In order to get the job done, we needed a way to log data on the road. Quite some time…
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Studying Bike Tires Part 2, Elevation Data
I’ve learned a lot since I posted “Studying Tires Part 1, Logging Data.” I mentioned that I believed there was either a shift in the barometric pressure, or that the absence of temperature and humidity were the reason for the shift in my driveway’s elevation. Today I have the results. A 12-Hour…
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Studying Bike Tires Part 3 Mounting The Logger
Last week I mentioned I was going to be busy in my garage making a mount for the data logger and sensors. Well, I have been. Here is what I have so far. The Basic Construction I thought about what to build this with and after looking at aluminum, pvc, plastic, etc.,…
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Studying BIke Tires Part 4, Relative Velocity
This week we have new parts. I just received a new wind speed sensor. If you are wondering why, I’d guess you are not alone. While a Garmin will give us great data on rider speed, it will not give us any information on relative velocity. For example, if you are riding 20 mph into…
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Studying Bike Tires #5 Wind Direction
The wind direction sensor I have been waiting for has finally arrived from Germany. It’s made by a company called Lufft and is accurate to +/- 1 degree. There are a number of wind direction options but most fall into the +/- 5 degree range. Since the yaw angle spread on a bike is…
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FLO Cycling – Union University Aero Wheel Study
Last year I spoke with Professor Georg Pingen from Union University in Tennessee. He mentioned that he had a class of students that wanted to study aero wheels on the road. I loved the idea and we sent a set of wheels to the university for testing. The results just came in and I…
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Studying Bike Tires Part 6 – The Maiden Voyage
Over the last few days, I’ve been able to get out on the road to test the sensors and my carpentry skills. Everything has been going really well. Here is a quick update on what we’ve been doing. The Voyage The first ride was at a slow-paced eight mile trip. I…
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Studying Bike Tires Part 7 – Solving for CdA
It’s been a while since I’ve posted about our tire study. Things have been busy here at FLO. Our last post discussed our maiden voyage. Since that time we’ve spent a lot of time riding the sensor around and have started to analyze the results. While we are not 100% of the way…
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Studying Bike Tires Part 8 – A Lot of Talking
If you read Part 7 last week, you will remember that at the end of the post, I said we were headed back to the drawing board. Our CdA numbers were not what we expected and I was a bit frustrated. However, I received an email from one of our past customers, who is…
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Wheel Design Series Step 5 – Wind Tunnel Results
Legacy Article: The data discussed in this article is taken from our previous generation of wheels. In 2014, we sat down to redesign our FLO Cycling wheel line. This five-step design process took 15 months to complete and this blog series covers the design process in detail. This is Step 5 of our five-step…
