I bought a Zipp 404 clincher 700c off of a fellow ST person. I had no prior experience with Zipp wheels. Do the bearings run a little looser than other wheelsets? It has only a tiny bit, maybe a half millimeter of side to side play, but when I lift up the bike and tap the wheel on the side, it makes a little rattle. It seems smooth as silk and I’ve put 500+ miles on it without issue.
Thanks.
Adam
Yes, normal when you load the wheel, the play is gone. Also, if you hear a rattle, it is often the little carbon fiber dust cover that gets loose. There are instructions on Zipp’s website on how to remedy this if present
It may just be the carbon dust cover. I had something similar on my 909 front. I just tacked a little glue on one edge to keep it from rattling. Maybe thats not the prob… just a suggestion.
One of my Mavic wheels also rattled a bit, I dismounted the tire and took of the tape, there were many tiny metallic particles in a couple of spoke holes which I guess were just excess material that was not properly taken off at construction. Anyways, I just shaked it all off, wiped it clean, re-mounted the tire and listo!.
Suggest to dismount the tire to inspect if you have anything inside (like little pieces of carbon, etc…).
what rroof said, the wiggle is the bearing preload, any rattling noise is the carbon dust caps coming loose.
for rattling:
Unscrew the axle (hex wrench in each end), pull out the axle, carbon caps should drop off, you’ll see an o-ring that normally holds the caps in place, there’s a groove for the o-ring and it’s probalby not in the groove anymore, roll it back in the groove, apply a dot of silicone to equivalent to glue it in place, reassemble, no more rattles!