Zipp 454's

[Jeff N.]

Anyone riding on these? Are they all that? -Jeff N.

[Tim Porter]

Well, I won a set in a World Bicycle Relief raffle at a fund raiser a little over a year ago and then it took awhile for them to arrive so I've been using them since this spring. I've got 25mm Vittoria Corsas on them and they're pretty stellar so far. It may be crazy, but I'm using them on a 75th Anniversary Paramount I got a couple years ago.

First, a long-winded description of my Zipp experiences:

I have a love/hate relationship with Zipp wheels and have owned older generation 303s in tubular and clincher, and two types of 404s in clincher. I never bonded (i.e., trusted) the hubs up until the current generation hubs on a set of 404 NSW that have been surprisingly quiet, robust and feel fast, so I've kept them around and ride them extensively in RI near Newport where we spend a lot of time. The 404 NSWs are on my fillet brazed Kirk with 25 mm Continental GP4000II tires and they have been reliable, pretty quiet and the braking is dang good. Note, however, that I ride them in an area near the coast that is not exactly mountainous, so I'm not testing the braking all that hard.

I've had less than stellar braking from Zipp in the wet in the past, but that seems to be fixed on the latest wheels I've used.

The best Zipp experience I've had was on the 303 Tubulars (rode them hard in Mallorca) but the damn rear wheel would not stay true no matter what, even after a rebuild or two by Zipp and/or my local wheelbuilding wizard at Signature Cycles.

Once you've gotten over the negatives of riding Zipp carbon clinchers (braking issues, hub quality, aesthetics?, and the 200+ grams of extra weight over tubulars), I think you'll find that current generation of wheels to be pretty exciting. Even at my advanced age I sometimes rock some rolling roads at race speeds and they make a definite difference in cresting those hills with some velocity.

To get to your original question, the 454s seem pretty unique in their smoothness to me, and I have carbon wheels from Lightweight, Campy and Enve in clincher and tubular. I've described the 454s a couple times as feeling that the bike is more "quiet", not in the sense of noise but that the front end, even in all but the heaviest crosswinds, seems more stable and easier to hold a line. Even in stiff crosswinds the front of the bike does not veer like a sailboat getting up on the wind. I ride the 404NSWs around the point at Brenton Reef state park in Newport all the time and they are good in crosswinds but the 454s are calmer. Braking is amazing but loud.

Aesthetics-wise, you'll have to decide if you like the whale-fin look on the inside edge of the wheels. I've been told it's a travesty on my old-school looking Paramount (steel frame/carbon fork with Campy).

One other thing: if I was doing time trials or especially triathlons, after my experience so far I would have a front wheel in the 454 configuration in a heartbeat. A tubular one of those, or even better, the next size up, would be amazing on a tri bike or a time trial bike if you're on the aero bars a lot. Bottom line is that some of the hype so far seems to be borne out by my experience. If I was going out to do a long rolling century today I'd take them.

I hope this long-winded brain dump helps. Tim

[Jeff N.]

Thank you Sir!

[Tim Porter]

De nada. Just to clarify, when I say the brakes are loud I mean the whoosh of the brakes, there's no squealing at all with a tiny bit of toe in.