A day at FF Wheels

I’ve been meaning to write this blog post for a long time now, but the guy who hit my bike with his car kinda threw a spanner in the works (and me to the asphalt). This blog post is not about the accident, but about he excellent service at FF Wheels.

A few years ago, my coach advised me to buy a power meter. I decided I wanted a hub version, so I’d have the possibility to use the wheel on both my bikes. I wanted stiff wheels and after some online searching, I found a set of FF Wheels with a Powertap power meter. These FSR wheels looked amazing and had excellent reviews, so I ordered them right away. This turned out one of the best bike related purchases! The FSR wheels are indeed stiff and fast and I’ve been using them on a daily basis in sunny Sicily. This means that I’ve ridden over 40,000 km with this wheel set.

Then, one day, I noticed a small dent in the rear wheel, so I contacted the guys at FF Wheels and asked them whether this was a real safety issue. They explained me that, while this small dent would not cause problems at this moment, it might get worse over time. Obviously, the idea of a possible safety issue while going down hill with over 60 km/hr wasn’t that appealing to me, but buying a new (expensive) wheel wasn’t either. I would have gone for a new wheel, but luckily, FF Wheels is a quality wheel builder and has an excellent Crash replacement policy:

If you have a problem with one of your wheels, you can send it to FF Wheels, but because I was planning to go to The Netherlands anyway, I asked them if it was okay if I dropped by. And luckily for me, it was.

On a Monday morning in January of this year, I drove to Zwolle, the capital of the province of Overijssel in the east of The Netherlands. FF Wheels is located in a business park on the outskirts of the city.

The FF Wheels building in Zwolle

I was greeted by one of the employees and after chatting about quality (all FF wheels are hand built) and new wheel/cycling trends over a cup of coffee, Rik van Putten, the Commercial Manager at Fast Forward Wheels, took me on a tour of the factory. As soon as I entered the factory floor I felt like a kid in a candy store. Shiny, carbon wheels everywhere!

Wheels. wheels, wheels

Fast Forward makes all kind of wheels, from MTB, to road bike, triathlon and track wheels.

Three spoke wheels

FF track wheels

From the part of the factory floor where all finished wheels are located, we arrived at the repair department, where I gave my wheel to Oscar Torres, who started working on it while we continued our tour.

Oscar Torres repairing my wheel

The factory floor seen from the repair department

In the warehouse, FF wheels keeps all wheel parts, many of which from DT Swiss.

The warehouse

The department where they make new wheels is also conveniently close to the warehouse. While I was there, one of the employees was working on a wheel that was clearly meant for a Bianchi bike. The FF wheels come in three decal options: black and white, red and white (like my wheels) and Bianchi celest, which is actually more minty green than it is “sky blue”…

Fine tuning a new wheel

Working on a new wheel

Next is the shipping department, with lots of wheel bags, ready for shipping:

Shipping department

Sets of FF Wheels, ready for shipping

The office is in the center of the factory floor.

The office in the center of the factory floor

At the end of the tour, Oscar Torres was just finishing up.

Fitting new spokes

Fine tuning my wheel

When a rim is replaced under the FF crash replacement policy, the rim and the spokes are being replaced, so for only a few hundred Euros I ended up with almost a new wheel! And it does look like a new wheel:

My new FF wheel

When you have money to spend on your bike, fast wheels are a real good investment. And when you buy quality like the FF wheels, it’s good to know that you can count on an excellent service!

I’m looking forward to using my new wheel in Sicily and I’d like to thank Rik at Fast Forward for taking the time to give me a behind the scenes look.