I would NOT use it as an everyday wheel, for the following reasons:

1. It is an expensive wheel with a wreckable (read thin and lightweight) outer aluminum rim, one pothole and you are hosed.

2. You lose much of the raceday boost (albeit mostly psychological) of a switch to a race wheel. Kind of like a swimmer shaving down for every practice, as opposed to championship meets.

3.People will laugh behind your back (just kidding)

Get a powertap wheel for training too, simple.

Take Care

Tom Price

a question like this really depends on your income. If someone is swimming in money, sure all the ultralightweight parts can just be used for training... If they crack, so what, you can order another pair... I think for MOST people who really don't like to shell out 3K every couple of months for cracked wheels, those would not really be training wheels, simply because they would eventually crack, and if THOSE are your training wheels, what will you race on?

I've been using my 404 tubulars for three years when I'm riding outside. I love the wheels. To me, they are like jewelry that's meant to be worn rather than stored away and forgotten. What the hell? You're going to want a new set in a few years anyway when they figure out that the only thing faster than dimples are little depressions in the shape of the slowtwitch logo. So, what's the point in keeping them pristine and shiny?

-jeff

You cant go wrong using it as an everyday wheel, the cyclocross guys use them in races and you should see what kinda pounding they put them through.

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I have horrible back problems but I have zero problems staying in an aero position for 180k. Why? Because I ride steep and because I train regularly in that position. Simple as that.....Gerard

After 37 years I now understand why women love jewelry. Thank you.

Except that they're more like a Piaget than a Rolex...

Except that they're more like a Piaget than a Rolex...

What makes you think so? I've been riding 404clinchers full time for four yours now with not a problem. This is on Long Island roads with plenty of pot holes. I even crashed once shredding the front tire. Still no problem. These wheels are much tougher than you think. I chose the clinchers so that I wouldn't be throwing away $100 tires every few months but I've known roadies who rode 303 tubulars full time. They never had a problem either. Except for wearing out the $100 tires.

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

My bad... I was assuming they were tubulars... carry on...

Even Zipp admitted here it is not best to do too many miles on your Zipps ;

http://www.cyclingnews.com/...005/reviews/zipp_404

Personally I don;t see the point of using them for training. You are taking a risk for what benefit ?

From the article...

I'll bet the failure rate is much higher than 32 spoke training rims, I still don't see the point, they are not designed for training, I bet CSC does not train on them. I've bent two rims on potholes this past year, if was training on my Zipps I would have burnt over a grand by now.

Perhaps. But, I'd rather see them get used as opposed to rotting away in some vault. I didn't get them to store away or collect dust in the garage. I got them so I could put some miles on them and collect some bugs with my teeth. They seem to be very happy with the arrangement. :)

I should add that mine are the 32 spoke clydesdale version which makes me wonder if they'd be well suited for pulling a beer wagon.

-jeff

After 37 years I now understand why women love jewelry. Thank you.[/reply]

I'm sorry to say that after 42 years, I don't have much more insight into women than that.

-jeff

I should add that mine are the 32 spoke clydesdale version which makes me wonder if they'd be well suited for pulling a beer wagon.


Ride the snot out of them. In 2-3 years there will be something new out there that you will fancy more than your current Zipps. Then you won't care about having some extra wear and tear on them. Personally, I think riding (ie training) is every bit as enjoyable as racing. So, why not enjoy the pleasure of a sweet set of wheels underneath. Just be a little more careful than if you were riding a cheap set of alum clinchers.

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http://www.speedtheory.ca

Exactly. And, it'll be so much easier to replace them in a few years knowing that I've gotten alot of use with them. Think in terms of the $$$/mile ridden on your equipment. It is a hobby (for me) after all. My income affords me such luxuries. But, I could/would never be able to justify to myself buying a set of wheels like that just to ride 3 IM's in 3 years. Hmmm. That's like $4.50/mile. My goodness. If I wanted such a poor return on my investment, I'd take up Bass fishing.

-jeff

get the pave version. then you'll have a great wheelset you canr ide everyday that won't be any less durable than anything else....naturally it'll be more expensive to replace/fix if you do break them somehow but those wheels are really tough.

jerk

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http://www.echelonbicycles.com

Just a note on that cyclingnew.com article quoted by Double-avodados. His quote about durability really confuses what we were discussing with him, that since CSC is the only team where every rider gets full carbon wheels for every racing day of the year, they will break more carbon wheels than other teams, where the domestiques get heavy beater wheels and the whole team gets special Classics only wheels. Having said that, the team consistently tells us that they break fewer wheels overall than other teams, but far more carbon wheels as everybody else uses their carbon wheels so sparingly...

Breakages come generally from crashing and from the guys running to and from the team cars when they are completely unsighted by the cars and other riders, run off of the road, crashed, and generally otherwise abused. Remember, these guys are racing at 50+ kph for 200+ km at a time on roads that we would generalyl consider to be nearly unridable. Also we discussed, but they failed to mention that the breakages are not simply broken and unridable wheels, but simply cracks in the rims. Of the 8 rims broken at Flanders, 4 of them were broken in crashes and 6 of the wheels were finished on an only discovered to be broken afterwards as the failures were simply cracks in the perimeter of the rim. Believe it or not the team was quite thrilled as most teams use their aluminum wheels for the one event and discard them aftarwards as they are generally bent, hopelessly out of true, stress-fractured and everything else you can imagine.

The mis-statement here is that the wheels will NOT eventually break until you hit something, crash them, or whatever. There is no fatigue type issues here with the wheels, so they only break when impacted or cracked due to some extreme stress. If you are just riding them and training on them and never crash or impact them sufficiently to break them, then they will not break due to fatigue.

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http://www.SILCA.cc
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One reason for training on them (at least the front) is to become accustomed to handling a deep rim wheel in strong winds. No surprises on race day. I use my deep front every day, although I'm putting it away for the winter after hitting a large road defect that gave me a pinch flat in the rear tube. No damage to the front wheel, surprisingly enough.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

[reply]get the pave version.[/reply]

what the jerk said.

Thanks Josh.....................

Much appreciated.