Ride-Centered Product Line

In early 2015 we set out to completely redesign our EPIC carbon wheel lineup. We already had a few ideas on how to improve the product line.

Having already sold thousands of wheelsets across the globe, and having collected as much feedback as we could along the way, we had pretty good insight into how riders were using our products, and how we might be able to optimize them further.

Our clincher product line has historically consisted of seven different wheelsets. That's a lot of choice (especially if you figure 7 different hubs in there too). We know it confuses some riders, so one of our criteria when redesigning our wheels was to make the product line simpler.

To do this we needed to distill what we had learned about the needs of our riders. From early on, sales figures and feedback from our community drew a clear picture - the vast majority of our riders fit into 3 distinct use-cases: 

1. Climbing and sprinting: Riders wanting a lightweight, stiff, lower rim-depth wheelset for hill-climbs, group rides and stage races, criteriums, cyclocross etc.

2. Fast all-purpose riding: Riders wanting a more versatile wheel that can perform in a variety of contexts and conditions including group road rides, solo rides, and everything else on occasion.

3. Triathlon: Riders wanting a wheel that provides maximum aerodynamics while remaining stable in windy conditions.

Once we identified these three use-cases, we decided to make one wheelset specifically for each, and that would be our full product line.  

EPIC 3.4 (Best For: Climbing & Sprinting)

EPIC 5.6 (Best For: All-Purpose Riding)

EPIC 7.10 (Best For: Triathlon)

By reducing the number of choices on offer we wanted to make it easier for riders to select the best wheelset for their situation. It also meant we could spend more development time on each model. The idea was to take what we knew people wanted, and make it better.

The result is a more intuitive line-up, built around rider needs from the ground up.