Flo Cycling Wheels (Page 36)

good lord.  Brilliant is correct.... Using those assumptions 400 per wheel, 1100 people, and 1.5 wheel each (half set, half single) thats $660,000 !!!!!!!!!  Well done guys!

Yeah I was averaging $300 for 500 wheels (how many wheels they can sell this month)  Way off was right.  Man, that's awesome.  I hope the wheels are safe and legit for people.  

With wheels, how do you know you will be satisfied with them unless you ride them?  What if they do not meet real world expectations?  You're stuck with it right?  Real questions, not snarky.  

Well I placed my order for a set of 60/90/disc and then went and picked up my Garmin 910xt that finally arrived. Nothing like buying your Christmas presents 10 months early. 

Holy cow, these guys at Flo are awesome. I just got a call from a number I didn't recognize - turns out it was the Flo brothers calling to let me know that my order (somehow) was the FIRST official order to be processed!!!

I'm one of the clowns that ended up with several tentative charges to my credit card because I was either hitting refresh or backing up and starting over from scratch, but I guess the purchase had already gone through on my initial effort.

I am now REALLY looking forward to getting these new wheels (my first ever wheel purchase). I've been following Flo Cycling for just over a year now and am thrilled to be in their initial batch.

I think it's so cool that they gave me a call to let me know, especially considering the crazy day they must have been having. Thanks!!!

Hence why I asked about what testing protocol FLO went through.  AFAIK, FLO got a huge box of wheels, they took pictures of them, posted them on their blog, and decided to open up pre orders 16 days later.

So where are these tests and reviews to base a purchase decision on.  Seems to me that hundreds (maybe even thousands) of people flooded in to buy a product with no such information.

This is specifically why companies release their products to people "in the know" prior to a mass market release.  Cycling teams, known athletes, cycling magazines who review wheels, etc.  They usually have an opinion or recommendation on products before it becomes available to the public.  Sort of like what DC Rainmaker is to the fitness electronic market. 

So again...I hope FLO the best of luck.  I honestly hope they produce quality products...products that I hope to buy once proven.  My skepticism arises because I don't think they have taken the proper steps to delivering a quality product...and I am a bit shocked that so many people have bought in to them (or the hype) with such little information that most companies do before asking money from customers.  The wheels don't even exist, yet they are for sale.  It has not even been a month since FLO unboxed their PROTOTYPE wheels.  It's really...truely...amazing.

Congrats...even though I am skeptical, I don't doubt that FLO's owners have nothing but the best intentions to deliver quality wheels.  I hope your order is the first of many good ones.

The wheels have existed for a year now. They had to change their carbon factory because of QC issues. The rims, spokes, hubs, etc are the same thing that they've been testing and hammering on for a year now. The carbon fairing is the only thing that has changed as far as I know, and that is the component that is "vastly improved" since the first iteration that some have reviewed and yet still had positive comments about. Pro triathlete Josh Amberger has professed in a video to have been a part of their development process "since last year."

I don't know what else they can do except wait for them to get into the hands of customers and wait for more positive word of mouth. If they couldn't pull off the pre-order, they probably could not have raised the capital to even produce these things en-mass and they never would have come to market. In case you haven't noticed, HED's prices have gone up dramatically this year ($500 more per wheelset) and the last time I checked, ZIPP's haven't gotten any cheaper. It's about time somebody produced a quality wheel without gouging the hell out of it's customers. Think about it for a second, some of these wheels cost more than the rest of the entire bike. For wheels! It's ridiculous.

Man, I really like what the FLO guys have done.  I hope it works out for them.  I've got some crazy expensive wheels at my house (Cosmic Carbone SR's, Zipp's, American Classics).....if the FLO's turn out to  be all I expect they may be....I'll sell all I own on ebay and have an entire stable of them.  No matter what you think....this is a very cool story. 

Congats to FLO on a great day for them!

The Flo guys can clarify if I am incorrect here, but I think all this concern about durability and testing is getting blown out of proportion. These are basically conventional wheels with non structural carbon fiber shape bonded to the rim.  Modern rims and hubs are pretty boring from a standpoint of reliability.  Hub meet spoke, spoke meet rim, have a great life together. Not all wheels are created equal, but when was the last time you heard of a hub or wheel self destructing just by riding?   I would imagine the bonding process of the carbon to the rim uses some serious industrial adhesive that is probably stronger than the carbon itself.  If they were not using a conventional rim, and the entire rim was carbon fiber, I would be on the same page as you.

My big question is will Flo provide part or service? If one component of the wheel goes bad (cracked carbon, broken spokes, hub gets rough, wheel gets jacked out of true), will Flo sell components to us or our LBS or offer a rebuild service?

Yesterday I placed my order as a guest and never got a confirmation since their server went down.  They updated their facebook page and kept all customers in the loop.

I just received my Invoice from Flo.  And it looks like my Order ID is #163. 

They are still working on Shipping Groups so i'm not sure if the Order ID means what place you got your order in.

I am crossing my fingers that I am #163 and i'm in Group #1!

The price and extra warranty (and the fact that they are Canadian!) made the deal even better.

Your Order

When our servers went down yesterday all of our automated responses did as well.  Thankfully, we have didn't lose any of our data and your order is safe.  We are currently sending out manual confirmations to each and every person who ordered.  You have to love technology  Attached is your order confirmation.  Please review the document.  If any of the data needs to be changed, please reply to this email.  If no changes need to be made, please do not respond.  If your state did not get entered that is OK.  You will not need to respond.  Nothing personal, we are simply going through close to 1,000 emails and don't need any extras to slow us down  

Double Charges

During the rush yesterday, many people were forced to refresh their payments screens.  This caused double, triple and sometimes quadruple orders.  We worked around the clock last night refunding every additional charge we found.  If you received more than one charge, you should see the refund in your account as soon as you bank posts it.  This can sometimes take 24-48 hours.  If you have had an additional charge and do not see a credit by tomorrow, please reply to this email and let us know. 

Shipping Groups

Because there were a large number of double orders, we are currently purging all of the false orders.  Yes… we get to do this manually as well  As soon as we have an accurate account of what orders were placed, we will send out the shipping group information.

You can test everything to the nth degree and sometimes, thing still don't go as planned.  You have our word that we will not rest until everything is squared away.

Take care,

I'm order number 129, which is apparently the first officially processed order (after several test orders, if I understood correctly).

The 500 you are referring to is the maximum number of individual wheels, not orders. 400-500 individual wheels produced & shipped per month. I noticed quite a few people ordering 3 wheels. I would think if a person is order #329 or under, then they will be in the first group, since it was confirmed last night that order #129 was/is the first offcial order