During a half ironman race at White Lake North Carolina this past weekend 30 miles into the ride my 404 rear wheel broke a spoke, obviously it developed a severe wobble and dragging on the brake pad for the next 26 miles ( I was still able to finish). I had used the wheel for 4 years in 4 ironman races and the carbon portion of the rim was a little dimpled in (the dimpling in is cosmetic only and zipp had told me that it was completely ridable like that but would offer replacement costs).
FWIW, FYI,
Here is what zipp offered me…
Rim replacement $230
Rebuild labor $40
regular spoke $1 each **or **newer more aero spoke $2.40 each
or full replacement wheel (that is durace 10 compatible) $474
If I had the cash on hand, I’d take the new replacement wheel - no question. You’re looking at roughly $300 for the rebuild (assuming you replace the spokes with the new/aero ones…and why not?) plus shipping, etc. For a couple bucks more (that’d be ‘bike gear bucks’, not real world bucks), you get an ‘04 wheel, brand-stinkin’-new!
Call me cheap, but since the rim is not damaged and is still rideable, I would replace the broken spoke for $1. I could spend the rest of the money on more usefull things.
WOW - I agreed with Ken, the world must be coming to an end.
Wait - it is DANGEROUS to replace your own spokes…what you need to do (and this is for your own safty) is send me the wheel and $200.00 - I will make sure that the $1.00 spoke is replaced and the wheel is built in a very safe manner.
Sign of the end times: 3 triathletes in a row suggest spending $1 instead of $450. To make matters worse, they are attempting to talk someone out of getting new carbon and something more aero.
Even though this might hasten our destruction, I would also go with the $1 spoke solution.
I’m sure the Velomax Tempest II is a fine wheel, but it’s only a 30mm rim.
Dan
No it’s not!!!
It’s exactly the same rim as the 404, lenticular and everything. The difference is that it has fewer spoke holes on the rear, other than that it’s a Zipp 404 rim. But not the hub and spokes and company.
here is a pic:
acoustics.mines.edu/~agret/mercury.jpg
I don’t want to take anything away from Zipp, they make awesome wheels. I just want to let people know that they have other options for almost exactly the same wheel as the 404 and (In my opinion) the better hub and spoke combo from Velomax. There is almost no price difference, so I went for wheel per buck, and the Carbon Tempest II won it for me.
I’m sure a lot of people would think the same way but they don’t know about the Velomax wheels, and that’s partly what this forum is about.
I’ve ridden H3’s, Cosmic Carbones and old 404’s … the Tempest II Carbon are by far the nicest wheels! (the H3 are hard to compare, they are right up there with Velomax)
Where can you find a rear Velomax Tempest II for $474? If you can get one for that price, take it and run. When I looked at these wheels, they were substantially more than this. Oh, and they don’t have Campy compatibility…
My bike is a campy only bike and the wheels ARE campy hubs with campy Chorus cassette. It evan has the same kind of quick change with a single hex bolt between campy and shimano, so you could in theory run both. However, shimano kind of died for me since I put my newest bike together and learned to appreciate campy…
Pricewise it might be a little harder to find a great deal on those wheels because they are less known. If you’re interested I can give you an address where you can find one under 500$. I got my pair for 1000$ and I’m sure that will come down once the guy sells a couple. Your estimate of 474 for a rear is kind of a once in a lifetime deal anyhow, so you need to compare it to such a deal for the Velomax too. The last time I checked on ebay, the Zipp 404’s sold for 999$ and that compares to the Velomax with the dealer I got it from.
ergo sum: forget about the 404’s and go for the Velomax if you like that rim. There is one catch…tubulars only!
You’re right - they are campy compatible now. Funny, I was looking at them earlier in the year when I was in the market for race wheels and the Velomax site specifically said they were only Shimano compatible or you could get a conversion kit. The link is still up, located here:
