I went to my LBS to pick up the loaner race wheel I’m borrowing from the owner, and brought along my newly purchased Zipp 400 for him to check out. He takes one look at the wheel and says “I know this wheel. I built this wheel! This was _____ _______'s wheel. Damn, this wheel must have like 70,000km on it - no joke! He used it as his everyday training wheel and rode the hell out of it. Still straight as an arrow though. Damn they build these tough. Nice. You must have bought it from _______ _______.”
I guess it’s pretty easy to identify a 16 bladed spoke Zipp 400 built on a 32 hole Superbe Pro rim.
I bought a QR Kilo off of ebay thinking I got a deal. Took it in to Tom D’s to get fitted. It needed so much stuff I was better off selling it and just buying a new bike. Tom’s looking at the bike and asked where i got it, “ebay, why?” I replied. He pointed to the shifters and said “they’re on backwards, so and so out in california (some pro racers brother) builds them like that” “he thinks the shifting is more natural”. The ebay seller lived in Long Beach CA. Tom recognized the bike build of a dude all the way across the country. I remember thinking to myself that this dude evidently knows his stuff if he recognized that.
HEY, those shifters were on the right way, all the rest of you put them on backwards;) I’m guessing you mean bar end shifters setup with the cable on the top=wrong, bottom=right. Never figured it out, I love my cables on the top. You pull back to knock it down a gear kinda like going from 1st to 2nd in a standard, yank it back and VROOOOOM!
You think that if I got a set of Zipp 303 clinchers with Powertap SL
They would hold up to daily abuse of a 160 lb roadie
I would not get crap from other riders because I am riding clincher Zipps
Your thoughts?
I want to train and race on the PT SL, and I am 99% leaning toward Open Pros again, but would get Zipps in a second if I was sure they would not fail or crack.
Our coach who still rides Cat 1 locally rides clincher Zipp 404 the entire summer. He is 150lbs and did not have good experiences with the 303, cracked a couple of pairs, but so far has had no problems with the 404. Races crits and RR on them.
I don’t actually know all that much about the 303’s other than they have a slightly shallower rim depth, but for some reason they aren’t as highly rated as the 404’s. I don’t know if it’s because the 404’s were the top of the line so it’s an image thing, or if there’s a real difference in build quality - I DO know that 404’s are reportedly tough as hell (for an all-carbon race wheel), and have withstood the test of time. My 400 is basically a pre-404 rim (same depth, very similar shape). It was built up in 1992, and has very high mileage on it - but it’s still straight and true.
So to answer your questions, I do believe that they will hold up well under you - 160lbs is not that heavy, and unless you abuse them they shouldn’t give you any problems. They aren’t however, 32 spoke Open Pros. While they are certainly tough for race wheels, and a lot of people apparently use them as daily’s, they aren’t the bombproof “ride through potholes and straight into curbs” training wheels that a 32 spoked Open Pro rim would provide. Given that you know how to treat your gear, however, I think you’ll be just fine.
As for other riders smaking fun of you for riding clincher race wheels, yeah - they probably will. Some of them, anyway. But listen - do you really care? I personally wouldn’t buy clincher race wheels - but I’m not going to give you flack if you prefer to. I can’t imagine why you’d give a shit what other people might say about your wheel choice.
I say go for the Zipps, but get a 404 rim. You can never be “sure” that they won’t fail or crack, but odds are if you take good care of your equpment they’ll last longer than your interest in them.
I don’t really understand why one way is right and one wrong?! I’ve seen the shifters both ways and just assumed it was a personal preference thing. Then again I live in California so maybe I see more of the shifters both ways, so it just seems normal to me!
