There was some discussion last week and the week before about the new Zipp 404 Firecrest clincher. As that was going on I was doing a quick review and some comparison photos of the previous Zipp 404 and the newer Zipp 404 Firecrest carbon clincher.
If you’re like me the first thing you want to know is, “…But is it faster?” I’ll save you some time here and tell you I can’t quantify that.
I can tell you ride quality is better- you feel the bumps less on the same road/same bike/sime tire/same tire pressure. It’s gusty here and I didn’t feel the “pushiness” or crosswind turbulence on the 404 Firecrest. There is also a measureable weight difference between old (alloy rim) 404’s and Firecrest Carbon Clinchers. In a refreshing break from the norm, the test sets of 404 Firecrest wheels we weighed on our scale were a bit lighter than Zipp claimed.
The heck of it is, I got the shot all set up- which is trickier than one may imagine, then realized I had no rim tape on the on the older alloy version. By then it was like 100+ degrees out and I had been in the sun, on the hot asphalt all afternoon trying to get the photo the way I wanted it so I just thought, “Ahhh… that shows the concept. It’s a wrap.”
If it makes you feel better, I didn’t even notice the missing rim tape.
Seriously, I am glad you are back doing those reviews, I really liked the BSM reviews and they still come up in the google searchs when I am looking for reviews of products.
Thanks
Ewan
Oh- it had a nasty flat from some pointy plant around here. It was dead. You may notice in the review the wheel reappears in another photo with a Continental Gatorskin on it…
