New Zipps - First impressions

[ChrisMCoupe]

Some of you will remember my old thread asking for advice on a wheel upgrade, which generated a nice discussion of aero vs lightweight. Well aero won and thanks to Rocksteadyeddie for pointing me in the direction of some Zipp clinchers at a price which was sort of within my original budget.

First things first, because we all love photos...



Now bearing in mind I've just come back from 10 days away and having consumed every piece of food and drink that Dubai has to offer, I wasn't expecting too much from todays ride, just a casual one to get back in the swing of things, and obviously eager to try the new wheels.

My god! Ok, so up till now i've been riding Mavic Aksiums, so I was expecting a noticeable improvement, but the way these things roll is incredible. I now realise why people bang on about the quality of the bearings, because I seriously think these things would never stop spinning. Get yourself on a slight downhill and the bike just tears away and you can definitely get away with free-wheeling more than I could before. Although a word of warning when you do this... Anyone within a half mile radius will hear you and know you are coasting, these hubs are loud! But what a lovely noise

I wasn't expecting to notice too much difference spinning them up from a standstill, because in reality, they aren't worlds away from the old Mavic's in terms of weight. What I really noticed straight away was how well they keep accelerating though, almost effortlessly. Much much quicker and less effort to accelerate from say 20kph to 30+kph

Ride comfort is also noticeably better. The bike now seems to soak up the smaller vibrations and road buzz better than before. Obviously you still feel the big ones, but then i do run my tyres at 120psi. Now I did combine the new rims with a jump to new tyres, Conti GPS4000S, so I don't know how much of this is the rim and how much is the new tyre, but either way I'm very happy.

Now the important one... Did they make me quicker? Well, I wasn't on top form today for reasons previously mentioned, but I do know a nice 3km segment on Strava which is pretty much flat and one which I ride quite often. So I put in a bit of effort and beat my previous PB by over 30 seconds and averaged 36kph. So yes, I would say they will make me quicker, and it's definitely easier/less effort to hold a higher speed.

All in all very very impressed, and I'm sure I would have been equally impressed with any of the suggestions from the other thread, but damn these look good!

Quick question for any deep rim owners... 80mm valve or valve extenders? I'm currently using long valves, is there a point to the extenders at all?

[Rolls]

Looks very nice! Bar and stem prime for the next upgrade! I went Richey Wcs on my six

[ChrisMCoupe]

Thanks. I find the stem a tiny bit too long actually, so I'm sure I can use that as an excuse to change it at some point

[Johnny]

Looks lovely!

Glad you're pleased with them, and that you're seeing a noticeable improvement.

Good work.

[Rocksteadyeddie]

Look great fella.

I tend to use valve extenders as it means you can continue to use "cheap" continental tubes with a short valve as opposed to the same thing with a long valve at minimum twice the price.

[okgo]

Some of it will be placebo, but the bearings really are good, even the ones I've got that have certainly seen a few miles just roll and roll.

But deep wheels of this level will be quicker, and changing tyres at the same time is the best way to get that massive difference in feel I reckon.

Good work.

[Potatoes]

Tres nice

[itsnotarace]

Put the Aksiums back on and put in the same amount of effort and you won't be any slower I guarantee it. You went faster because you were trying harder - simple

[okgo]

You are saying that zipp wheels are not quicker for the same effort than Aksiums? Is this another one of your obvious controversial comments?

They are faster wheels, surely that can't be in debate? For the same watts deep wheels with good bearings save me around 20 secs round Richmond park.

[Rocksteadyeddie]

itsnotarace said:

Put the Aksiums back on and put in the same amount of effort and you won't be any slower I guarantee it. You went faster because you were trying harder - simple

Oh, come along....

[Rouleur]

This could get messy...

[itsnotarace]

He will be fractionally more knackered at the end granted but the same amount of effort will produce the same overall speed, I don't understand why you all find this such a difficult concept to grasp

A perfect analogy is to picture two cars - one fractionally more aero than the other. Both cars drive side by side down a motorway at 60mph. The more aero car will use marginally less petrol than the other due to the aero benefit but they will both complete the distance in the same time.

To go faster you have to put in more effort over a given distance. For the same effort you will travel at the same speed

[Randy Winkman]

itsnotarace said:

A perfect analogy is to picture two cars - one fractionally more aero than the other. Both cars drive side by side down a motorway at 60mph. The more aero car will use marginally less petrol than the other due to the aero benefit but they will both complete the distance in the same time.

They complete the distance in the same time because you've stated that they are both doing the same speed. With the same "effort" the more aero car could go faster.

[itsnotarace]

Correct but over a typical strava segment you are talking about maybe 0.01 mph difference

I run both aero and non aero wheels on my bike and there is no discernible difference on strava segments or even the overall ride if I try as hard on each

[LighthouseTrait]

Randy Winkman said:

itsnotarace said:

A perfect analogy is to picture two cars - one fractionally more aero than the other. Both cars drive side by side down a motorway at 60mph. The more aero car will use marginally less petrol than the other due to the aero benefit but they will both complete the distance in the same time.

They complete the distance in the same time because you've stated that they are both doing the same speed. With the same "effort" the more aero car could go faster.

To add to this, an actual perfect example is in F1, with their adjustable rear wings, that can be opened to reduce drag. And they don't open them to save fuel..

[itsnotarace]

LighthouseTrait said:

To add to this, an actual perfect example is in F1, with their adjustable rear wings, that can be opened to reduce drag. And they don't open them to save fuel..

And at 200mph they gain what? 10 km/h? Scale that down to bicycle speeds over short distances and you are left with naff all

Zipps own data says something like 20 seconds saved over a 40km time trial which entails skin suit, aero helmet and full aero position on a TT bike. On a normal road bike without any of the other things you are basically left with a second or two over the same 40km course

[TKF]

itsnotarace said:

I run both aero and non aero wheels on my bike and there is no discernible difference on strava segments or even the overall ride if I try as hard on each

Then why do you bother having aero wheels?

May as well sell them to somebody who knows what they're talking about.

[ChrisMCoupe]

Thanks for the comments.

Some of it will be placebo of course, and I'm not a naive enough to think that these wheels will turn me into a whole new category of rider. However given the same amount of effort, they will make me quicker. It was obvious from my ride yesterday that holding my usual 28/29kph average speed was easier than usual, therefore it's not rocket science to realise that putting in the same effort as before, will make me quicker.

Anyway, handbags down, I'm off for a ride...

[itsnotarace]

TKF said:

Then why do you bother having aero wheels?

May as well sell them to somebody who knows what they're talking about.

Because my wheels weigh 1154g per pair and I bought them because they are one of the best all round wheelsets available, I didn't buy them specifically for their aero properties

So what you are saying is I should sell my 303s and buy some 1800g 404 clinchers and my Strava times will improve by 30 seconds per segment? fking lol

[anonymous-user]

Rocksteadyeddie said:

Oh, come along....

It's a fair test though.