No, No, No, you need a set of Z4's. Hand picked off the line by ninja dwarves for being the lightest and roundest (always good) wheels. Then the virgin of the forrest shaves the hubb smoother than her thighs, and passes the wheel to the old druid who inserts the ceramic bearings and applied the dimpled hub, much like his dimpled old ass. MMMMmmmm. Costs heaps, bling factor - priceless. Use these magic wheels to ride to the shops, everyday and on race day.

That was cute. I can give you some input. Factory built Zipps are strong and reliable. The LBS built 404's will be heavier, slower due to a higher spoke count, and may not be significantly stronger. The straight pull Sapim CX-Ray spokes used on the factory 404's are stronger than the j-bend DT's that you speak of. If you are anything near average weight, and don't abuse wheels, the OEM 404's will last you quite a long time.

Now you're talking!! Seriously, can't do it man, WAY too much $$$...plus I think you have to be way more talented than I to ride those wheels...



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Dog is God spelled backwards. That means something. I'm just not sure what exactly. But human is namuh spelled backwards.- Marc-Christophe

Go with the custom built on kings. I just built my 2nd set on Chris King hubs. They are truly unique. I was sick of riding Ksyrium Sls or whatever everyone else had at the time. I have a set of kings w/ dt rims and revolution spokes in a 32 spoke that weigh 10 grams more than my old sls...and they roll good with angry bee sound! Give them a try, you won't be disappointed.

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Support Your Local Bike Shop

Not true, I have less talent than a drowning BOP first time sprint distance failure running with my helmet still on, oh hang on, ignore that first bit. My point being if you can marry well or find an understanding bank manager, buy em, ride em (cyclocross if the mood takes you).

Custom. Wheelbuidler.com, Rich Sawiris. See if he can get you the DT Swiss 240S hubs. Though he carries a fine line of other hubs too, including CK.

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I wanna go fast!

My custom built Zipp 404 tubular rear is lighter than the factory spec wheel. And I got to use a black hub and black spokes so it looks wicked.

I second wheelbuilder.com. I got 404's cheaper than any retail place and he builds them to your specs and great to work with.

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

I'd just go factory assuming these are race only wheels. I've ridden mine for years in dozens of races and so do pros on stock wheels. No doubt the King hub is "better", but we are talking better for reliability purposes only, not speed. Also, I really love Zipp hubs - so smooth. These are race wheels - make 'em so! (i.e. lighter, fewer spokes = more aero, etc.). Also, race wheels = tubulars! Now, if you are building a set to ride a lot on, I'd go with the DT (or Sapim) spokes, King hubs, Zipp hoops, etc.

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Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

Personally, after having built my own 404 set, I would just go with the stock build from Zipp. You are only saving a couple hundred bucks, but I think the resale value of the wheels would be greater if it was the original Zipp build.

I used 24h D/A shimano hubs paired with CX-ray spokes. The set worked really well and had no complaints. Just remember that Zipp specifies no more than 2x on the 404 rims because the spoke holes are not drilled at an angle to accomodate 3x or more.

Another thing to keep in mind though, is that if you ever have any problems with the wheels, a customized set probably won't be as fully supported by Zipp for repair as their manufactured ones. (cracked rim, bad hubs, etc.). Zipp has been very good with product support with a decent turn around time. It might take longer to source parts from a LBS if it's during the busy season (when you'll probably be using the wheels the most).

I'd make another pitch for going to Rich at Wheelbuilders.com. He is great, does a great job, and is very price competitive. I sent him a set of retro campy high flange track hubs, and he build up a great set of wheels with them.

DB

From my point of view it really depends on what you are after, if you want the fastest set of race wheels possible, then the Zipp hub should be the only option, if you are trying to acheive a ceratain look or bling factor, or want somehting colored, then King hubs would be a great option too. I think of it as the Zipp hub being like a race car, highly optimized for strength, weight, very specific materials and processes, high tech coatings and such, and is therefore extremely optimized to do one thing, go super fast (while still being able to stand up to a year on the Pro-tour without maintenance as CSC rides bone stock 'off the rack' wheels). While the king hub is like a Mercedes SL500, very sexy and fast, but not completely optimized for weight or speed, and sharing components with the rest of the product line which makes it very durable, but not as optimized for racing. The Zipp hubset is just over 100 grams lighter than the King and rolls with just over 1 watt higher efficiency due to the type and grade of bearings combined with the way the hubshells are machined to locate them. Similar story with the spokes, the CX-ray is a slightly more optimized spoke than the DT making it slightly lighter, more aero, and the heat treating gives it about 2x the fatigue life, but of course it also costs about $1.50 more per spoke, but again is highly optmized for performance and not for cost. Also, all of our wheels are handbuilt (not machine built) at the factory, I know that this doesn't have the same cache as some guy on the internet, but we have 3 wheelbuilders each with a minimum 5 years experience and they do nothing all day but build wheels, and our head wheelbuilder has been at this so long that he was head wheelbuilder for team Yeti back in the Juli Furtado/John Tomac days, our guys go over to Europe 3x per year to teach the pro team mechanics about working on the wheels and about building wheels...these guys are good!

We see lots of our rims built onto King hubs for cyclocross, tandem and 29" mtn bike use, and for those applications I think they are great, but if you are looking for race wheels the Zipp hub is definitely the better option, as you are spending your money for speed, not looks or a buzzing sound. This is all backed up by testing done by Tour magazine in Germany, which gave the Zipp hub the highest stiffness to weight ratio and highest rolling efficiency of any hub tested, and the second lightest in the test at 83g front/ 178g rear.

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