FLASH-POINT BLOGGER: ANDREW MCCARTER

It has been altogether far too long between posts for me. A combination of wheel swaps, sickness and travel conspired to get in the way though that doesn't quite justify the dearth of posts. Now that things seem to have been put to rights I'll endeavour to be more diligent!My last post indicated that my rear-wheel went out of true during the first ride I’d managed on the flashpoints. In fact it turned out to be a broken rim. The carbon had cracked around one of the spokes and was beyond repair. The good folks at Zipp promptly shipped me a replacement and I’d experienced nothing untoward since then. It’s not always a case of just how good a product is but also how good the company is when something goes wrong. I received my new wheel within 2 days of notifying Zipp of the failure.
Since then I’ve managed to get some riding time on the wheel in various conditions. I raced a couple of crits on the wheels during the Parkside series in Kenosha, WI and have managed to get a few hundred miles in lately for training. The gap between the early March crits and now has been attributable to getting sick, having some really lousy weather and having to take an unplanned trip back to the UK. The wheels are probably not the best crit wheels. They aren’t the lightest and don’t accelerate as quickly as some others, but this should be tempered by the fact that unless you are racing Cat 2 or above the wheels aren’t going to hold you back! Conversely, some of the longer training rides I have done recently have given the wheels more of a chance to show their stuff. These rides have invariably turned into mini-races. The wheels still have that solid feel to me that I first felt back in the beginning of the year and on long steady efforts feel easy to push along. I’m still running the gatorskins on them as I haven’t been bothered to swap them out so that probably doesn’t help the rolling resistance that much.
The constant wind in Illinois gives a good chance to feel how the wheels react. They do grab in a cross-wind but the slight extra weight I find helps. In comparison my American Classic 420s have a similar rim profile but get blown around more easily due to their lighter weight. Given that I can afford to lose a few pounds from my middle, a lighter wheel set isn’t necessary! Despite the lack of bike time, I’m eyeing a 50km 2-man TT in July. The FP40s will definitely be in action on that day.

At long last I managed to get out on the road with my FP40s, which have been sitting in my house since December. After a bit of a false start where I had to get a replacement rear wheel from the folks at Zipp followed by snow or brutally cold days, the weather cooperated just enough to allow me out on the road. Rain for the last two days had done a reasonable job of clearing away all the snow and although it was still raining, the 45-degree weather was too good to miss.
For the weight-conscious, the wheels weighed in as follows (before rim strip, tubes and tires):Front: 743g Rear: 921g
Not the lightest set of clinchers - even deep rim - but not overly heavy either. I raced last year with a set of American Classic AC420s - similar in profile but several hundred grams lighter. As such I swapped out the cassette off the ACs and decided to ride these on my race bike for a bit of a comparison. The weather is still bad enough to warrant some less-than svelte tires, so I put a set of Conti Gatorskins on the wheels. These aren't light and they don't roll like a set of race tires. Due to time constraints and the worsenning rain, I cut the ride down to 30 miles over rolling terrain - no real hills but constant little ups and downs. I didn't try and real sprinting this time out, but kept the ride to a faily decent speed averaging about 22mph for the ride. The wind on the way back was a constant cross-wind slightly from the front. I could feel the FP40s tug once in a  while in response to a gust but nothing that caused any anxiety and certainly nothing that I wouldn't have expected from a rim with this profile - less in fact. This is when I started to notice that the extra weight compared to the AC420s was actualy quite favorable. The FP40s felt very stable and even with the Gatorskins rolled very nicely. In those sections where the wind was helping, the wheels felt very good indeed - I began to wonder what a set of the 60s would be like in a time trial with its even deeper profile.
Moving away from stop signs the wheels tracked well and felt eager to get up to speed - although, as I mentioned, I wasn't doing any sprinting. I didn't really put any power through the pedals during the ride and so there wasn't even the chance to notice any flex. When the weather gets better, I may take these to the local track to see how they feel on the banks of a velodrome. Braking, even with the wet conditions, felt secure. The Dura Ace brakes have always been good but the braking surface of the rims afforded a good contact point and the look of the "grooves" in the rim didn't seem to reduce the contact surface at all. On getting back to the house I noticed that aside from having a good 3-hour bike clean in front of me, the rear wheel needs a slight truing before the next ride - nothing unusual considering I didn't even check it before going out for a first ride.
First impressions have been very favorable. I'm not sure if these will see much action in the crit races I'll do, but right now I'd have no qualms about taking them out to a road race. Aside from a few decent climbs in Wisconsin, there aren't too many races in my area where the extra weight compared to wheels like the Easton Ascent II, AC350s, etc. would tell - certainly not at my level!, so these may end up being a very good semi-aero road race set - April will see my first road race of the new season so we'll see!
Since I can't put more than one image in the entry, here are a few pictures I took:Front: http://www.flash-pointracing.com//ridersource/0562321001138585734.jpgRear: http://www.flash-pointracing.com//ridersource/0057271001138585849.jpgRim: http://www.flash-pointracing.com//ridersource/0254079001138585926.jpg