I’ve been thinking about springing for a set of 404 tubular type rims for hillier courses, but the chances of cracking a carbon tubular rim concern me. The Zipp 404 Pave rim seems like a great idea in that it is advertised as being reinforced with a little extra carbon which, in theory, should make the rim stronger and less likely to crack. I’m not looking to CX race with these, just looking for some extra insurance- especially given another post today.
So, anyone have experience with the 404 Pave? Is it really stronger? Anyone seen/heard of a cracked rim from normal road useage?
Never heard of it. I have, however, cracked a zipp 303 rim riding over a railroad track in a group at 28mph (Zipp was great with crash replacement since I am original owner). I have heard of a few 303 rims. I don’t think that you are fully protected, but I would agree with your thoughts that it should be close to bombproof.
Not exactly sure what Fredly has seen as I see him in lots of threads saying that Zipp stuff breaks easily, and it is true that these can be broken just like anything can, but I would say that it is far from common. The Pave laminate gives you about a 40% higher impact energy at failure than standard. We have guys racing cyclocross on them and CSC races all the classics on them without much drama, and considering CSC is generally the only team to have every rider on carbon wheels at every race including Flanders, Ghent, LBL, Amstel Gold and the others where the road conditions are very poor, I think that says something. Plus the Pave laminate is now in its 5th generation as we have improved performance whenever it was possible through continued testing, making it stronger still. We sell this rim in a Clydesdale specific wheelset designed for guys over 225 lbs as well as a cyclocross specific wheelset for guys to ride cross, two things I certainly wouldn’t do if I didn’t have total confidence in the rims.
I have a set of 404 Clydesdales that I ride routinely with over 30K miles so far and never a problem … at 220lbs and 6’4. I have regular 303’s/ 808’s/and a disc. I’ve never had a problem and I’m not nice to wheels. I think they’re relatively bulletproof. I destroy MAVIC Ksyriums in 1 month average (multiple rim failures) prior to switching and regular spoked wheels I destroyed virtually weekly to the point I carried extra spokes with me. Anything can fail over time or a specific stress … but I personally would only ride ZIPPs. No … no sales or company relationship … free market choice.