Do you mean wheels or tyres?
Zipp 404 are carbon wheels. Pretty much all road and tri bikes use 700c wheels (or equivalent tubulars) except for a very few bikes in small sizes which use 650. If you are talking about tyres, the Felt B16 to the best of my knowledge does not have sufficient clearance for tyres wider than 23mm. Perhaps you'd fit 25mm but it's not a safe bet. If there are 700c 30mm tyres on the bike, I'm confused. I wouldn't have expected them to fit a Felt B16!

Sorry my fault. Looking for wheels. That's what I was told would be a good upgrade. Like I said I don't know much about them. The wheelset on the bike now is Felt TTR-4 700c 30mm deep aluminum. Was looking to get a carbon wheelset. They are spendy, so was wondering if they are worth the money, and wanted to know if they would fit before I bought a used set. Thanks

my first tri bike was a used 2011 B16, pretty much only upgrade I made was a set of Flo 30's, some decent tires and a wheel builder disc. The bike was more than fast enough for me till I upgraded a couple years later. not big bucks at all.

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Taylor Rogers

2024: IM Hamburg

The ttr wheels are bulletproof, mine came with the 40mm version and I use em all the time on my roadie.
Got 404 as race wheels (w/cover for the rear) plus a set of Planet X 52/80 I train on.
Was it worth to buy the zipps? Not sure. There aren't big speed gains as far as I noticed over the Planet X, handling is no difference either for me although the different shape of the rim but the zipps is a little deeper.

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-shoki

I have the same bike (2014 edition), now fitted with roadie cockpit and mini aero bars for draft legal races
I have put on "old style" Zipp 404's (alu braking track) and I'm happy with them (got 23mm clinchers)
anyway I would consider buying wheels only if you already have optimised your bike fit and your "outfit" (aero helmet and aero trisuit)
about the tires, I would not go wider than 25mm (23mm are better on that frame, it's a 2009 design)

Thank you for the information. I see you can buy a carbon wheelset made in China called Superteam for $350 off of ebay. They seem to have good reviews. Anyone ever used them, or know anything about them?

I personally wouldn't buy generic full carbon wheels, or any full carbon wheels for that matter.
Carbon wheels exist primarily as a fashion accessory. An alloy rim with a carbon fairing is a better option in my opinion.Carbon is not an ideal material for bicycle rims. It can potentially save a little weight but it is poor for braking due to lack of grip, lack of thermal conductivity and susceptibility to failure should high temperatures occur. It's not worth the compromise just for a largely irrelevant weight saving - assuming there is one. I believe hybrid rims are a better solution form an engineering perspective. There may be some argument to the contrary if you had disk brakes but not with rim brakes.

I'd look for a set of alloy rims with a carbon fairing. This includes certain wheel models sold by HED, Swiss Side, Zipp, Flo and Mavic. I use a set of Swiss Side Hadrons myself. My first choice would be HED Jet+ wheels if you can get them within your budget. Don't get carbon wheels just to get carbon wheels. They won't transform your ride. There'll be a small aerodynamic improvement with well designed, deeper rims. The braking will get worse if they're full carbon and assuming your current alloy rims brakes are set up properly.

It sounds like you are on a budget. If so, a B16 is a great affordable starter bike. My advice is to prioritize where you buy speed. Start with an aero helmet. Get your water bottle off the downtube, etc. Work on your flexibility to get a good aero position, and make sure your bike is fit properly.

If you want to buy a few minutes of speed over the course of an IM, then look at buying a used set of wheels from a reputable second hand dealer or on this website. A set of New Zipps would be worth more than your bike.

What distances are you racing? I think an aero helmet gives you better improvements than wheels. I got lg p-09 on sale for $149 and giro aerohead is under $200 now. I have some profile design 58/24s on sale and I like them. I use them as well on my road bike and they do make for a better ride compared to my old wheels. With that being said, hard work has made the biggest difference for me. I get on or near the podium for local and smaller races but big ironman events I'm nowhere near the podium. If it works for your budget, go ahead and buy these things if they're something you like.

Incidentally, I presume you're not on the original Felt tyres since the bike is several years old, but tyre and tube choice does make a big difference and is significantly cheaper than new wheels.
If you're not already using decently fast tyres, I'd look at that first. If you're not really fast this is an especially easy choice since rolling resistance is proportionally more important at lower speeds. It's still worhtwhile for fast riders too. Continental GP4000sII are an excellent choice if you don't want to give much away in rolling resistance but also want a bit of an all-rounder rather than a race specific tyre. There are some faster tyres like the continental TT and Supersonics or the Vittoria Speeds but they'll typically cost more and have shorter lives. Latex tubes are a cheap and simple upgrade too and will make additional rolling resistance savings. Wheels are a typical first upgrade but they're unlikely to be the best investment in terms of money spent for speed gained.

I'd look at your position as a priority but that may be a separate issue to equipment.
For equipment upgrades I'd look at:

1. tyres & tubes
2. clothing
3. helmet
4. bottles
5. wheels

I have a 2017 B16 and assuming it hasn't been changed I have a set of Flo60/90's on mine and they fit fine with 25mm tyres. Maybe a bit tight but I haven't noticed any obvious rubbing except for the time I didn't get the back wheels to sit perfectly aligned after a mid race puncture repair and it rubbed a bit.

Thanks for all the input. I will check out your Profile Designs if they are in the classifieds. My next race is a full Ironman and it will be my second full. The last one I did on my road bike in just over 6 hours so I am trying to improve on that time. Sounds like I have a lot of options to look at. I got a professional bike fit and moved the water bottles to the rear. I do not have an areo helmet. Just looking for the best way to get extra speed out of the bike. Thanks for all the info.

The original tires are still on the bike and look brand new. The guy I bought it from never used the bike.

I'm on a 2015-2016 b12. Not sure if there are major frame differences. My upgrades in order of when I did them.

-ISM saddle
-rear bottle cage & bta bottle cage
-Grand Prix 4000 SII tires (month or so before race season)
-aero helmet & tri suit
-HED Jet 6+ Wheels
-Powertap P1 powermeter pedals

I really like the wheels. The rim width is about as wide as I can get on the bike. Not sure if anything larger than 23mm tires would fit (at least mounted on these rims).

It is probably smarter to get the Power Meter before wheels for training reasons, but I got both at nearly the same time in my situation.

If the wheels were just for my road bike, I'd care more for full carbon. But that's just an attempt to keep my bike light for purely novelty reasons. We're talking maybe 200 grams for the money Id be conforrable spending.

Well if they're stock Felt TTR tyres, that would be my first change!
Safest bet is a set of 23mm Continental GP4000sII tyres. If you do a bit of checking and find out 25mm will fit that frame, then that would be my preference, especially if you're not really light but either is fine. Like I mentioned before, there are faster tyres but if you don't know you want something else then the GP4000s are a good choice.
I'd match those with a set of latex tubes. They do make a difference and they're not expensive.
If you're looking to keep costs low, I'd probably go with an aero helmet before a set of wheels, especially as they're generally a lot cheaper (unless they're very cheap wheels and an expensive helmet).
You've got the fit and the bottles in decent shape so the other thing worth checking is clothing.

Replacing the tires and tubes with the gp4000 would only be about $100. Do u think if I could get a used carbon wheelset with wheels for under $300 that would be money better spent or just replace the tires on the bike now. I am only looking to improve my time. Not going to win any races. My last Ironman was 11 hrs 49 min. Bike was 6 hrs 6 mins. That was on an older aluminum road bike with clip on areo bars. I think I can make up sometime on the bike but not willing to break the bank doing so. I am not looking for the easy way out. I will put the work in. My clothes are just fine. Could use a new helmet but that's no problem. Just thinking of a wheelset and tires for now. Thanks.

Pre 2016 B16 had a different frame design

Go to Youtube, search Wintunnel ---- I like all their videos, but watch the "whats an upgrade worth" video....

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Want: 58cm Cervelo Soloist. PM me if you have one to sell

Vintage Cervelo: A Resource

It's probably worth changing the stock base bars on the older B16s. The stock one is certainly adjustable and beginner-friendly (i.e. lots of ability to play around with position), but it never looked very fast to me. Not to mention the slippery elbow pads and ridiculous pad spacers! You can pick up a Profile Design Svet for about USD60 on Amazon (I did a few months ago).

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http://www.howesgreg.com

Keep in mind that the new carbon wheels may be wider than what you've got. Because the brake is mounted beneath the chainstays near the crank, there is limited clearance. If you open the brake wide enough to clear the rims, you may be interfering with the crankarms when you pedal. You may need a new rear brake if you switch wheels.

I have a Felt B14 with stock felt TTR wheels (30mm). I have yet to upgrade to deeper wheels due to cost, and namely cost to performance ratio. For an ironman distance I've estimated I would only shave 5-6 minutes off my bike split by using Zipp 808's (80mm) over my stock wheels. That would be less time with 404's. So I will just continue working on the "engine" and, as others have mentioned, use a nice aero helmet and reduce the drag as much as possible with aero hydration setup etc.

Now if I was contending for a Kona spot that might be different.

Not to labour the point, but if 5-6mins saved for wheels is accurate, it's likely you'd get more just by putting on better tyres and tubes at a much lower cost. Assuming the stock tyres are not great. I haven't seen test data on Felt's stock TTR2 tyres but I'm pretty sure they're mediocre at best. I used the ones that came on my Felt for some training rides and then relegated them for use on the indoor trainer.

Good point on the tires. I have stock Felt wheels but I normally ride Conti GP 4000S/4000S II's with standard Butyl tubes. But I just recently put some Conti GP TT tires and Latex tubes for a 40K TT. I messed around with Bestbikesplit.com and figured I'd save a few seconds with the better tires/tubes. I don't remember how much, might have been 15 seconds or so which might make a difference in a well attended 40K TT. It wasn't that well attended, I got third in my class, about 40 seconds behind 2nd. The question is, would a rear disk with 60mm front have gotten me that extra 40 seconds....hmmmm. So on shorter races where podiums are won/lost by seconds rather than minutes I think that's where it may mean something.

I then did a 30 mile training ride early this week with the Conti TT's and latex tubes (just left those on my bike) and had my best training ride pace wise so I'm so far a believer in the upgraded tires/tubes.