We at ICAN are very proud of our carbon fiber aero road bike wheels. We felt that the FL Series carbon wheels were at the pinnacle of aero wheel design. In 2019, we adopted a similar design and pushed our engineering to achieve a lightweight wheelset with excellent quality. In 2019, we will deliver the Aero Series for carbon wheel road bikes.

Our Bestselling Product

In 2018, the FL Aero bike wheelset was our best-selling product. And we were busy listening to feedback from those who purchased them. We relayed their feedback to our engineers and asked them to make the FL series even better. It was a difficult problem, but we felt our engineers could deliver. One thing our customers wanted, which is the same for almost all road bike products, was lighter wheelsets.

Making the Aero Lighter Than the FL Wheelset

Thanks to customer feedback on the FL series' stability, many people felt that the FL series was like cornering on rails and trusted the wheels on the most technical courses. We also received a lot of feedback on the ease of setting up the FL series tubeless. Utilizing this feedback effectively, we realized we needed to maintain the same rim shape that was actually working well. Finally, we added a new rim to the series that was not present in the FL series. The 35mm deep wheels are new rims for 2019.

We know we need to maintain the same shape, so we don't want to upset our customers. This means we had to figure out how to change the carbon fiber layup and rim construction. This is not as easy as you might think and involves a lot of complex work and computer modeling. With our FL series, we were limited by the use of Toray T700, and we needed to find a solution.

We visited Toray, a Japanese company, to examine their carbon fiber and investigate the different properties of each carbon fiber product. We analyzed in detail how they changed the feel of the wheels. Our engineers knew they had to maintain the proven handling and stiffness. It was not an easy task, but it was certainly worth it.

Finally, they reached a conclusion. The best way to lighten the FL series wheels and maintain quality was to use a combination of Toray T700 and T800 carbon fiber. The internal layup is different, but the appearance and quality are all maintained. And so, the new Aero series wheels were born.

The new Aero rims have all the performance of the FL series, but are lighter. They are just as aerodynamic, sturdy, and strong, and we were able to shave off about 100 grams per wheel. See the chart below for more details.

Below is an image of the FL and Aero rims. They are so similar that the difference is almost imperceptible. An easy way to check the difference is by the serial number. The serial number of the Aero rim ends with SL.

SL stands for Super Light. This is one of the easiest and most reliable descriptions given to our new Aero wheels.

Improved Heat Resistance of the Braking Surface

One of the concerns many people have with carbon wheels is the braking surface. With the FL series, we were at the top, offering a braking surface that could withstand temperatures up to 240℉ (about 115℃). We always want to improve the heat resistance of our carbon fiber wheels.

Figure 2, Our FL rim braking surface

Our engineers may have felt the burden of making the wheels lighter, but we are now pushing technology and bicycle engineering even further. Our wheel rims can withstand temperatures that other wheels would not prefer. The new Aero series has achieved heat resistance up to 300℉ (about 149℃). This means you no longer have to worry about long Alpine descents and can descend safely.

Figure 3, New ICAN Aero braking surface

New Lightweight R01 Road Bike Hub Set

So our engineers felt that if they were going to improve the rims, they should also revisit the hubs attached to them. The beauty of a well-made carbon fiber rim sometimes overshadows the hub. As seen in the FL series, our original R01 hubs were OEM parts that we created in Taiwan.

Our engineers disassembled the sealed bearing R01 hubs of the FL series and began to improve them. They were able to shave off extra weight, which was difficult to find in an already ultralight hubset, and remove two spokes from the front hub. The removal of the extra spokes reduced the front hub to 18 spokes, and the rear hub has 24 spokes to aid in power transfer.

Figure 4, The new R01 is a work of ultralight art and precision.

The new Aero series R01 hubs are one of the finest precision sealed bearing hubs available on the market today. With these hubs, you won't waste energy trying to speed up.

Sapim Spokes

Our FL wheelsets are manufactured using Sapim CX-Ray spokes. We sent our engineers to see if they could find a better spoke set. They found that most other lightweight spokes were too flexible. They couldn't find anything as light as Sapim CX-Ray spokes that didn't flex.

We wanted our new Aero wheels to become the standard for road bike wheels. We decided to continue using the same Sapim CX-Ray spokes as the FL wheels.

However, the Aero series project doesn't end there, and you can expect to see our AERO wheelsets in disc brake guise later this year. If you prefer a disc brake hubset different from our R01 hubs, there are also options for DT Swiss 240S hubs or 350S hubs.

2019 is the year our Aero series became ultralight. Couldn't ultralight be a New Year's resolution?

We are assembling the AERO series disc wheelset, and it has already been released!

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