Flo Cycling Wheels (Page 35)

Sort of - after being stuck on the processing page I clicked on view cart and started over. Oops!

Not to rain on their parade, but I got looking around the web at other low-priced aero wheels, and found Williams and Boyd.  They run about $200/set higher, and both seem to have been around for at least a few years.

Am I missing something? 

Yeah, there $200 more and less aero.  It's called most bang for buck.

I never liked "pre-ordering" anything.  If it's available it's available.  Why take people's money before then?  Oh that's right, the hype-train.  This would be amusing if real money wasn't involved.

Eh...truth is, I think it's a pretty cool story even if I like to poke some fun at it.  At some point I'll likely buy a disc from them if the reviews turn out to be true since a cover from wheel builders won't fit my SC.  I think the owners of FLO played this perfectly and should be rightfully proud.

Could end up being even more amusing SINCE real money is involved...and mine included.

Honestly, i don't care that i'm pre-ordering. i have to pay the money at some point. My opportunity cost is nothing, since my bank pays me nothing to have it there. I'm not going to use them for a few months anyways, and if they're that good, i'll have them for a while. I'm not in a hurry to have something now. This is the cost and item i have been looking for, so i'm fine with doing it this way.

I was stuck on the PLEASE WAIT after entering my CC information as a guest.

I am at work so I ran to a meeting and an hour later it was still at PLEASE WAIT.  I closed the page and called my credit card company and it looks like my order was placed.

The only problem is...I don't know what shipment batch i'm in!!!!  I hope i'm in the first group.  If not, I may reconsider.

Uh....they had over 2200 sign up for the pre-order....let's say only half of those ordered a wheel....let's say that half only ordered ONE wheel each (that DIDN'T happen).....use $400.00 as an average per wheel. Do the math.....brilliant hardly covers it.  Very impressive.

yeah, the estimate of $150k was way off when you look at it that way.

And i think the smartest thing they did was continually stay in touch with the boards/emails/etc.. They did a phenomenal job at that and built confidence with everyone. Earned a lot more sales that way..even if they do end up running off with our money

Does anyone know what type of testing FLO wheels have gone through?  I really hope that FLO succeeds with quality wheels.  But what really makes me cringe is that they received their production prototypes on January 24th, then on February 9th announced that pre-orders would begin soon.

I'm not really worried about FLO's wheel design...I'm worried about how the design translated to what the manufacturing company (not FLO) actually produced.  FLO has already experienced production flaws with a previous manufacturer...flaws so great that they were visually obvious and likely weren't even field tested.  I'm sure most people agree that it's possible to have manufacturing flaws in a wheel that are not visible.  And if so, is 16 days enough time to test for those flaws?

Zipp came out with their new Firecrest design recently.  I would be curious to know how long, how much, and what type of testing they did upon receiving their prototype models before deciding they were satisfactory to go through with ordering production models.  Something tells me it was a lot longer than 16 days...despite Zipp having nearly 20 years experience in the wheel manufacturing business. 

Can I get an AMEN!!!!!!!!

axteraa - 2012-02-23 1:25 PM I'm order 212 - I'm hoping the 211 previous orders didn't order too many multiples! 

Well I'm in for a 60/90 at # 312.  Sounds like a lot of people refreshed on the payment page and submitted multiple orders, so I'm hoping I'll move up some.

Still I should be solidly in the 2nd group to get wheels in July.  Really want them before Augusta at the end of September so I should be good.

No different than booking a vacation at a hotel or via a plane that has yet to be built.

Ding!  Maybe I've become pessimistic, as I work in technical support in the aerospace/defense industry, and see stuff get screwed up from suppliers all the time.  That's just on the quality side, which is more about building to the design spec.  The other side is the design side, which it seems they did good research on the shape, with the CFD and wind tunnel work.  I didn't see much on durability/lifetime issues; did they test a wheel for 500 miles?  Not knowing what other companies do doesn't help, maybe design safety factors are up high enough to account for this.

I hope they have success, and it seems they're off to a good start, but buying the first new thing off a production line that you trust with your personal safety is tough for me.

Lukasz - 2012-02-23 10:05 AM

tri808 - 2012-02-23 1:03 PM

Lukasz - 2012-02-23 8:58 AM  To me this is no different than booking a vacation months ahead. You pay for it at the time of booking, yet you don't go on vacation for months. Any Different? Nope.

No different than booking a vacation at a hotel or via a plane that has yet to be built.

No different than booking a flight and/or vacation and having that company go out of business. Thank goodness for Visa.

You can surely get a refund for a product not delivered.  You can't get a refund for a product delivered that does not meet your expectations.  Anytime you buy something...there is a chance it might not meet your expectations.  That chance significantly rises when a product you buy does not yet exist.

Error: Could not make a database connection using [email protected]

The rush of people at the beginning crashed our database.  We contacted our hosting company and the site was live in a matter of minutes.  We are sorry about that!

Second, in the rush, some people refreshed their payments screens and were double charged.  We are currently sorting through all of the orders (there are quite a few so please be patient) and refunding anyone who had a double charge. 

The shipping schedules will be out as soon as possible.  There is an incredible amount of data to go through so please be patient.  

Finally, we cannot thank everyone enough for their support.  Today was a tremendous start for our company.

Thank you, 

 

Error: Could not make a database connection using [email protected]

The rush of people at the beginning crashed our database.  We contacted our hosting company and the site was live in a matter of minutes.  We are sorry about that!

Second, in the rush, some people refreshed their payments screens and were double charged.  We are currently sorting through all of the orders (there are quite a few so please be patient) and refunding anyone who had a double charge. 

The shipping schedules will be out as soon as possible.  There is an incredible amount of data to go through so please be patient.  

Finally, we cannot thank everyone enough for their support.  Today was a tremendous start for our company.

Thank you, 

 

Since when?

I think the major difference is the firecrest is a carbon wheel and fairing, the flo wheel is a regular aluminum wheel with a carbon fairing that is not load bearing. 

Yes there still could be problems as evidenced in the first run they had, but I don't think a non-load bearing carbon piece requires quite as much on road testing as something like a full carbon wheel would.

That said, my wife gave me her best stank eye when I even mentioned the pre-order so it looks like I will have plenty of time to wait and see reviews before I am allowed to order any.