WHEELS
2009 Ambrosio Complete Handbuilt Tubular Wheelset
It's foolhardy for us to tout these wheels when there's already such fine eloquence on the record courtesy of the (now-defunct-or-nearly-so) blog Belgium Knee Warmers. Their heart and soul is their rims -- hard-anodized 32 hole Ambrosio Nemesis tubular rims. If you're a student of authentic ...read more
2009 Zipp 202 Wheelset
Many folks consider the Zipp 202 to be a "climbing" wheelset. Looks can be deceiving, though. The 202's have a rim depth of 32mm which means the wheel rolls at lower drag down hills and along the flats, as well as shallow uphill grades. It is 4-6 watts more aerodynamically efficient than the ...read more
2010 Zipp 303 Wheelset
If you read carefully between the lines of Zipp's offerings during the 2009 season, you would have noticed that they placed themselves in a pickle with their 303 tubular wheelset. They were able to improve the aerodynamics of both the 202 and the 404, leaving the 303 kind of without purpose. The ...read more
2009 Zipp 303 Wheelset
To choose is to live. We have to admit that we find ourselves splitting hairs when choosing between the Zipp 303 and the 404 as the ideal racing wheelset. They're both feathery light and extremely aero, with the 303 being a bit lighter and the 404 being a bit more aero. What should be the tipping ...read more
2009 Zipp 404 Wheelset
Weight isn't everything when it comes to wheels. Aerodynamics, especially Zipp-tuned aerodynamics can make a big difference. Their ABLC rim dimpling, as you know by now, reduces drag just like the dimpling of golf balls. And on the 404 you get a totally-redesigned rim profile. It's now fully ...read more
2009 Zipp 808 Wheelset
There was a time when a 35mm deep rim looked oddly deep. In that era, 19mm deep box-section rims were the norm. Nowadays, 35mm looks normal. And at 82mm deep, wheels like the Zipp 808 look deep. The tubular version of the 808's rim is only 460g, which is lighter than many box-section clinchers. ...read more
2009 Zipp 1080 Wheelset
We'd love to be a fly on the wall at a Zipp imagineering session. Like for this Zipp 1080 Tubular wheelset. Zipp started with a few knowns, like the fact that some people already can handle Tri-Spokes in crosswinds. They then used that info to figure out how they could make a wheel that's faster ...read more
2009 Zipp Team Issue Wheelset
The Zipp Team Issue Wheelset was known for many years as the "Team CSC Wheelset". It was Team CSC's go-to wheel for training and for the nastiness of Belgian pavé in the spring classics season. Money talks, though, and after a long spell of Zipp/CSC collaboration, Specialized backed up a Brinks ...read more
2009 Zipp 900 Tubular Disc Wheel
We thought Zipp would stop tinkering with their 900 disc. We thought a disc wheel was a disc was a disc wheel, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein. We thought wrong. This latest version is 90g lighter than the previous generation Zipp disc. It still has only 19mm of frontal area, so it's still nearly ...read more
2008 Zipp Sub-9 Lenticular Disc Wheel
Our mind was blown when we heard that Zipp was about to debut a disc that produced negative drag. Aka lift. All our experience tells us that drag should go up as wind whooshes by a product. There are definitely ways to minimize drag. Maybe, maybe, there is a way to flatten drag. But turn it the ...read more
