zipp

Last month CyclingTips’ David Everett travelled to Indianapolis to experience first-hand how Zipp makes its wheels, to meet the people involved, and to find out what’s made them such a success. What Dave discovered was a company that has stayed true to its roots while becoming a world leader in wheel design and technology.

Zipp introduced their Firecrest shape a few years ago while developing full carbon clinchers and have slowly been updating their entire wheel range with the new design. The company’s 202 wheels are the last to receive the Firecrest facelift and they are being marketed as a “do-it-all classic wheelset”.

There are hundreds of wheels on display at Interbike this year. More manufacturers are now offering full carbon clinchers, wider rims, and many have updated their hubs to accommodate Shimano’s new 11-speed cassette.

Zipp released the new Firecrest wheels in the middle of last year. What’s new about them? The biggest difference over their previous models is rim shape. These are not just a revamped version of the 404 tubulars. Zipp widened the sidewalls on the Firecrest. As you can see in the illustration below, they are very wide at […]