January 15, 2013
FLO Cycling - Josh Amberger for 2013
Labels:
en
,
FLO News
,
The Industry
As many of you know, we sponsored pro triathlete Josh Amberger for the 2012 season. Our relationship worked well together. We were a growing company and Josh was a growing athlete starting to make a great name for himself. Our agreement was more or less done on a hand shake (if you can do that on Skype). Jon and I are straightforward guys and so is Josh so we had no worries.
Josh spent about three weeks with us in Vegas during the month of September. After the season he had, I knew his career had the potential to take shape in a hurry. Josh and I spoke at length about his career, marketing himself, and we even took him to Interbike to help him make as many connections as he could. We made some introductions at Felt and fortunately he was able to secure a contract with them. I guess the only downside is that the Felt deal could only come with SRAM, which means he also is required to use Zipp wheels.
Although I am sad to see Josh go, I am happy to know that his career is heading in a positive direction. I am also happy that Jon and I were able to help him along the way. In true Josh Amberger fashion, he handled the whole thing with class. Josh had a very respectful conversation with me about the the choices he needed to make for his career and I gave him my blessing. While we may part ways in business, we'll definitely remain good friends. Felt and SRAM are getting a great asset.
Josh, all the best this season and thank you for handling this situation like a true professional. You've got big things on your horizon.
Take care,
Chris
PS: Yes, you can still crash on my couch for St. George and Vegas 70.3 ;).
January 13, 2013
FLO Cycling - 2012 Year in Review
Hello All,
2012 has been a great year for us at FLO Cycling. Our sales officially started this year on February 23 with Pre-Order #1 and our first wheel shipped in late May. Even with a shortened year, we greatly exceeded the expectations that Chris and I had when we started FLO Cycling. We've shared our story since starting our company, so in true FLO fashion, here are a bunch of interesting facts from the year.
How Many Wheels did we Sell?
Believe it or not we sold exactly 1500 wheels. I had to check my count three times because I couldn't believe we sold such an even number. When Chris and I first thought about FLO in 2009, we figured if we sold 100 wheels in our first year that we would be in good shape. As you can imagine, we are ecstatic about the fact that we sold 15 times our original goal. In total we had 787 orders ranging from one to five wheels sold per order.
The interesting thing is that we could have sold more wheels this year if we had not been throttled by production. As a young start-up we managed our orders and cash flow as best we could but each pre-order resulted in us being out of stock. We're planning to double our production next year to keep up with the demand.
Bike for a Kid
As many of you know, we donate a Huffy bike and Bell helmet to a less fortunate child every time we sell a set of ceramic bearing wheels. In total, we were able to donate 117 bikes and helmets this year. This is the best part of our jobs. Check out our bike giveaway video below.
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| Pre Order #1 Command Central |
As many of you know, we donate a Huffy bike and Bell helmet to a less fortunate child every time we sell a set of ceramic bearing wheels. In total, we were able to donate 117 bikes and helmets this year. This is the best part of our jobs. Check out our bike giveaway video below.
How Many Countries have we Shipped to?
I always enjoy looking at this. In 10 months of sales we've shipped FLO wheels to 28 countries. I've been to five countries in my lifetime so it's amazing to think that a product we've developed is in more then five times as many places. Here is a list of the countries we've shipped to in order of the number of orders shipped to that country. Be sure to check out our "Reach" page to see an interactive map of orders.
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What are our Three Most Popular Wheels?
1. Front FLO 60
2. Rear FLO 90
3. FLO DISC
What are the Most Popular Sticker Colors?
Here is a list of the stickers colors in order of most popular to least popular. Stealth Black was a clear winner and we have yet to ship a set of Purple wheels.
1. Stealth Black
2. Stealth Red
3. Red
4. Black
5. Stealth Grey
6. Blue
7. Grey
8. Stealth Blue
9. Stealth Green
10. Stealth Yellow
11. Green
12. Stealth Orange
13. Stealth Pink
14. Orange
15. Stealth Purple
16. Pink
17. Yellow
18. Purple
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| FLO Wheels Ready to Ship to their new homes! |
Social, Website, and Blog Stats
The internet is an amazing place. We've tried our best to reach as many people with our marketing plan and we are happy with the numbers. These reflect the total number of people we've engaged with since day one.
Website Visitors: 161,285
Page Views: 708,709
Number of Countries that have Visited our Site: 133 (196 in the world)
Blog Pageviews: 206,083
Facebook Likers: 2,125
Twitter Followers: 810
YouTube Subscribers: 213
YouTube Video Views: 70,588 (Watch out, Psy!)
News Letter Subscribers: 6,421
We're overjoyed with the outcome of 2012 and we can't wait for 2013! I hope you have enjoyed our year in review. Head back next year to see what we've accomplished in 2013.
Take care,
Jon
January 2, 2013
FLO Cycling - Three Steps to Become a Faster Cyclist
Labels:
Aerodynamics
,
en
This is a question we hear and often ask all of the time. How do I get faster on my bike? In reality there isn't one magical answer that works for everyone. However, I do believe that some general guidelines apply. Let's take a quick look at three steps you can take to get to the finish line, or T2, a little quicker.
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Step 1 - Train
There's no secret to this one. In order to ride your bike faster, you need to ride it. By riding your bike, you make the physiological adaptation to get faster. Your central cardiovascular system improves by gaining an increased stroke volume and blood plasma and decreases the resting and non-resting heart rate. The peripheral cardiovascular system improves by increasing the surface area of the venous and arterial capillary supply. Though that seems like a lot of fancy terminology, the bottom line is that riding your bike often causes good things to happen.
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| The Human Cardiovascular System |
If you want to learn how to make this happen more effectively you can hire a coach or read some of the many books available. If you hire a coach make sure you get a good one. Too often, people are coached by people who have no idea what they are doing and it gets ugly quickly. For triathletes, Matt Dixon (@purplepatchfitness), Dr. Phillip Skiba, and Joel Filliol are a few of the greats that come to my mind. If you are going to read a book and coach yourself, I'd recommend Hunter Allen and Andy Coggan's books or Dr. Skiba's books. Both are great resources.
Step 2 - Get a Good Bike Fit
Cycling fast is not only about how fit your cardiovascular system is. Your efficiency on the bike is also very important. If you are using all of your cardiovascular fitness to push an inefficient system, you are wasting a lot of that energy. The more efficient your body and bike systems are, the faster you will go.
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| A Great Bike Fit |
There are two main things a proper bike fit does to improve your speed. They are as follows:
1. It improves mechanical efficiency by putting your body in a position that:
- Produces optimal power.
- Doesn't restrict breathing.
- Limits risk for injury.
- Is comfortable.
- Doesn't waist energy (ie. uses the skeletal system to support the body instead of the muscles)
2. It improves aerodynamics. A poor body position can add a ton of drag costing you minutes over a 40k. Make sure you are dialed in.
Like coaches, there are good fitters and bad fitters. Make sure you find a good one. The first few brands that come to mind are Retul, Specialized BG Fit, and F.I.S.T.
Step 3 - Equipment
I'd like to be clear and tell you that even the best equipment on the planet will not make up for a lack of training. A good engine is the key. However, it does help. High tech equipment is expensive so make sure you get the most bang for your buck. Wheels will give you some of the biggest improvements and you don't have to spend a fortune to gain most of the rewards. A well designed aero front wheel and a wheel cover to cover your existing training wheel will give you ~90% or more of the benefits seen by spending thousands of dollars.
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| FLO Cycling Aerodynamic Wheels |
If you are racing a triathlon or time trial, you can also save time by investing in a triathlon or time trial-specific bike with aerobars, a tight fitting race suit, and an aero helmet. All of these items will save you anywhere between 60-180 seconds and sometime more over a 40k time trial.
Here is an example of how many seconds our wheels will save you on average over some common race distances.
| Wheel | NDRV | Time/40K | Time/Ironman |
|---|---|---|---|
| FLO CLIMBER | 78.3 grams | 31.3 sec | 2 min 21 sec |
| FLO 60 | 175.3 grams | 1 min 10 sec | 5 min 16 sec |
| FLO 90 | 172.1 grams | 1 min 9 sec | 5 min 10 sec |
| FLO DISC | 253.7 grams | 1 min 42 sec | 7 min 37 sec |
I hope you have enjoyed this article. Please leave your comments and questions below.
All the best,
Chris
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