FLASH-POINT BLOG ARCHIVE: Mar 2004

Well, its been a long time and we have spent countless hours looking at cross sections under a microscope and theorizing different methods of manufacturing so that we can achieve our goals. We had a new and somewhat revolutionary idea to try which we did today. Unfortunately, the "drapeability" of the concept is not quite what we need. With all of the other projects going on we have not really had this one going on a daily basis. This idea is a jolly good one and I think has promise. We can make rims faster but not significantly quicker, therefore its not good enough. The whole objective is "affordable performance" and manufacturing in the USA makes labor expensive but skill level high. This product cannot be an incremental improvement, it has to be revolutionary and for this, our brains have not worked hard enough yet... Boy, sometimes it seems we can eliminate weight and improve aerodynamics faster and easier on Zipp wheels as the base knowledge is so good in our organization. Eliminating cost and maintaining performance is so much more difficult!!!