Hi i was wondering what you think is more aero/ faster the zipp 808 or a h3c trispoke. I mainly ride flat courses and avervage about 25mph for a 40k
Andy
Bike tech review have wind tunnel tested the differences.
Zipp claim they’re faster, Hed claim they’re faster.
Personally, I’d always go 808 as I think the tri-spoke looks ugly.
Since I am a sales rep for Zipp, you can guess which one I am going to tell you is faster. However, why not just go with the 1080. It was designed to handle like a three spoke, and is clearly faster.
If you want to say for the sake of argument that the 808 and the trispoke are exactly even as far as aero, the 808 is giong to handle better. There is a ton of data out there comparing these two wheels, do a little searching and you will find it.
Lance Armstrong used a H3 front for his Tour de France wins. Therefore, the H3 is faster.
Seriously, don’t sweat it too much. I use the trispokes not because they are fast, (at the time I bought them they were the fastest wheels on the planet) and also because they are virtually indestructible, and don’t require a valve extender. They also look really cool, and the graphics won’t clash with your bike.
Why is the 1080 clincher supposedly delayed on getting to market?
I have H3’s front and back. Personally, I think they look cool and they make a gnarly sound (which may be a waste of Watts). They were also substantially cheaper in used condition on eBay and more easily available. You’ll have fun riding riding either set.
– Boris
any thoughts how a 1080 would handle on the front (with a 1080 wheel also on the back) in a windy race with bike speeds up to 50mph (downhill) for a 110 pound rider?
What not make your life even more difficult and look at the Blackwell 100 as well 
.
will the extra weight of the 1080 not have an effect copaired to the h3c
.
interesting, as I recently put a 404/808 combo on the tri bike and doubted I’d notice any impact on handling, but soon discovered that it could blow about quite a bit. Made me nervous a couple of times - granted there were stiff side winds, probably gusts to 20 mph at shoulder level - it was a flat open ride, nothing to block wind from any direction. It took about half that ride before I got completely comfortable with the 404 front - and I’m 5’11’’ 170 lbs, with a lot of riding in the winds around here. I’d worry about a larger rim height in windy conditions, especially in a pack.
The only delay is simply production not being able to keep up with demand. I know several of my retailers have had them in and sold them. I believe that a couple still have wheels in stock.
The wheels are great, I actually got my first ride on them this past weekend.
Completely depends on the rider.
What wheels are they used to riding, how much experience do they have with deep section wheels, etc. I have noticed that the handling on my bike seems to be better when I run a deeper rear wheel that front wheel. I believe it transfers the side push lower on the bike.
Wish I had a better answer for you, but there are just too many factors that could influence how a certain wheelset would handle for a certain rider.
If you are averaging 25mph for a 40k now… what are you riding on? Thats a pretty damn fast split!
I was just curious because I had reserved a 1080 front clincher with race day wheels for IM CDA and they said they wouldn’t have them in on time. Disappointing, but I’ll still get to sport an 808, which isn’t bad…I was just stoked to run the 1080.
Actually, you are correct. I’m sorry. The clinchers are not out yet as far as I know, only the tubulars. I am a tubular guy, and sometimes forget to think about clinchers. The 1080s are sweet. Maybe the clinchers will be available by your next race. Good luck in Idaho.
Hope so! And thanks for the good wishes!
Sorry to hijack the thread, but since you are a rep and I have been meaning to ask Zipp–I have a front 1080. It is sweet, but when I spin it, it is obviously way out of balance (not side to side but in the circular plane, such that it bounces when you free spin it of of the ground), appears due or at least on side of the valve extender (i.e uneven weight in circular plane). With all of the, admittedly ridiculous concerns about precision, I can not imagine that this does not have some effect. I am racing it in a half on Sat and a sprint on Sun, so will see if I can tell in race conditions-can not say I can tell in test rides–but then I don’t think we can tell nearly as much as people say.
I have noticed that with my own wheel when the bike is in the stand. However, I can not tell at all when I am riding it, I actually raced it last weekend, my max speed on the bike was just over 50ph, and I never noticed the “out of balance” thing.
One thing that helps with virtually all wheels is to place the computer magnet on the opposite of the valve stem.
I think this is one of those things that seems really bad in the stand, but when actually riding, doesn’t matter at all.
That being said, if you notice it at all when riding, please give the guys in Indy a call, or take a look at the website and use the live chat feature.
I don’t think I have been that much help here, it is just really hard to tell how bad something like this is without seeing it. If you don’t notice it at all riding, I wouldn’t worry about it. I worked for several years as a bike mechanic, and I can tell you that when you get on a rim that is really out of balance…you know.
The wheel imbalance is still there but your weight is dampening it. At some speed the imbalance will be particularly high because you will have reached the resonance frequency of that mass imbalance. Go past that speed and it will settle down again. Now, that speed could be very very high and something you will never reach anyways.
The rim itself may have a heavy spot somewhere and the tire has it’s own due to the valve stem. You may need more than a small computer magnet to compensate for it.
– Boris
what kind of tube or tubular tire do you have? one with a super long stem, plus an extender? or one with a short stem (~35mm) plus a long zipp extender?
because the tubes or tubular tires with super long valve stems (which are made of brass or steel) make for a very unbalanced wheel because the valve stems are remarkably heavy. but zipp extenders are hollow aluminum and are super light, so using them with a standard length stem tube or tire is the vastly better choice to keep a balanced wheel.