FLO 30 vs the world...

[Matty]

Hi Chris, two questions here. I really like the look of and research/testing that has gone into the FLO 30 wheels. Good job in your openness and sharing of data.

I'm curious to know though, did you compare the shape to other aero profiles in the 30-40mm range? It's nice to have a comparison to a benchmark (Mavic Open Pro in your case) but because that's a very square section, it doesn't tell me how these wheel compare to other similarly deep rims with different shapes (classic V's etc). As this is my current starting point, it makes no sense to compare to a different (worse) benchmark.

Obviously I don't expect you to go back to the wind tunnel and test everyone else's wheels, but you've clearly done some CFD work to arrive at the final shape; from your blog: "We tested a number of profiles in CFD to find the shape we were looking for."

How much variation did you find in the different design iterations?

Second Q is: what would be the shipping cost of a set of FLO 30 wheels to Australia (3125) ?

All the best!

Thanks,
Matt.

[Chris Thornham]

[Matty]

Thanks. My current wheels are about halfway between the Climber and the 30 in shape (ie, 30mm rim, no significant step at the brake track). But the hubs, stiffness, spoke count and weight are all pretty ordinary.

The other really interesting result of your testing is how much difference you found between the different tyres. Been a while since I studied fluid mechanics, but it looks like the more prominent tread patterns are probably creating a turbulent boundary layer and helping prevent flow separation/stalling as the yaw angle increases. There goes the old rule that road bike tread pattern makes no difference! Hmm, might be a new business opportunity for you - aero tyres!

[Chris Thornham]

You are very welcome. The aero tire thing is definitely a viable opportunity. We were pretty surprised by the results when we saw them. The next time we are in the tunnel we will be testing even more tires.

Take care,