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Zipp Tubeless
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Anyone have any experience with the new Zipp tubeless wheels? Specifically wondering how hard or easy it is to get a tire on and off. Can you do it without any levers? I don't think it matters but fwiw, I'm talking rim brakes. Also, what is the tubeless tape like that comes with the wheels? Did you replace it with something else?

Thanks

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Last edited by: stevej: Nov 15, 18 5:30
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Re: Zipp Tubeless [stevej] [ In reply to ]
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We have quite a few of them around the office.. of course, about half our people are ex-Zipp people so huge product familiarity there.

I'd say that they are no harder than any others to install or remove, but just like ENVE's you have to really pay attention to getting the beads in the center channel when installing or removing tires. We had a customer bend one of our aluminum/hybrid tire levers on an ENVE wheel last week doing a tire removal and turns out they were trying to remove the tire without unseating the bead.. almost impossible.

We have about 30 carbon wheel sets around here at any one time from our friends and partners at Zipp, ENVE, FLO, Boyd, Shimano, Hunt, Woven, Campagnolo, you name it. We are finding that manufacturers are very good at holding the bead seat tolerance, which is great news for holding on tires, and all of them can be installed/removed with proper technique even with tires on the small side.. but notable is that the tire tolerance is larger than the wheel diameter tolerance, so ultimately tires play a larger role in difficulty fitting than rims at this point in the game.

We do recommend SILCA rim tape as it is thinner than pretty much all the other rim tapes (but made of higher strength stuff), so with 2 wraps on a road wheel the thinner tape can save you up to 0.20-0.25mm effective rim diameter over other tapes, which has the same effect of ~0.75mm of tire circumference increase. Born out of similar tubeless experience, the SILCA tire levers have really narrow tips designed for this use case, and are aluminum with a protective composite shield on one side for tire removal as we've found with the industry growth toward tubeless that tires now fit tight enough that often times you might not have enough room to get something like a Pedro's tire lever in there as it's too wide and thick.

Lastly, we've had great experience with the KoolStop Bead Jack (not a SILCA product!) for installing tires. You still have to be carful with the bead placement or you can break the jack, but again, with good technique it can save you a ton of time and hassle and raw fingers..

Good luck!

http://www.SILCA.cc
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Re: Zipp Tubeless [stevej] [ In reply to ]
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It depends a ton on the tire. I've had some tires that were a real PITA to mount (broken tire levers) and others that were super easy (no hands). My experience is that tire matters way, way more than rim.

The tubeless tape that comes with the wheels works just fine. I've never replaced it, though I hear that guy from Silca makes some pretty nice tape...

"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp
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Re: Zipp Tubeless [joshatsilca] [ In reply to ]
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joshatsilca wrote:
We have about 30 carbon wheel sets around here at any one time from our friends and partners at Zipp, ENVE, FLO, Boyd, Shimano, Hunt, Woven, Campagnolo, you name it. We are finding that manufacturers are very good at holding the bead seat tolerance, which is great news for holding on tires, and all of them can be installed/removed with proper technique even with tires on the small side.. but notable is that the tire tolerance is larger than the wheel diameter tolerance, so ultimately tires play a larger role in difficulty fitting than rims at this point in the game.

Good to know!
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Re: Zipp Tubeless [stevej] [ In reply to ]
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stevej wrote:
Anyone have any experience with the new Zipp tubeless wheels? Specifically wondering how hard or easy it is to get a tire on and off. Can you do it without any levers? I don't think it matters but fwiw, I'm talking rim brakes. Also, what is the tubeless tape like that comes with the wheels? Did you replace it with something else?

Thanks

Have not used the wheels, but the new Zipp Tubless Race tires go on my wheels (FLO) very easy. No tools required. In fact Zipp even specifically states not to use tools.
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