Edco Flüela Wheels Review
The sharp V-shaped cross section of Swiss wheel brand Edco’s new Flüela wheelset appears in direct contradiction to the current thinking that to be aero yet controllable, rims must have blunt profiles. It’s no mistake – Edco says this doesn’t have to be the case and claims to have proven it in a white paper with the help of Paul Lew, a composite scientist who knows a thing or two about aerodynamics. To cut a long and very complicated story short, Lew claims that while blunt rims perform well at constant wind velocities of 40-50kmh in a windtunnel across relatively narrow yaw angles, they do not perform in the wind velocity range of the real world, which is typically much lower and more inconsistent. ‘What’s more, our work [in the Edco-Faster wind-tunnel] testing real world, low-wind velocities and higher yaw angles aligned with the previous findings of other brands – that the right rim shape can generate significant forward thrust [to offset but not eclipse drag] like the sail of a boat, to use a common analogy, ’ says Lew. The full contents of the white paper are too complex for our feeble minds. All we know is that we hate cycling into a headwind, so any wheel that claims to reduce the pain is fine by us.
Source : Cyclist