For their mountain bike debut, the Zipp-engineers spent over three years working on a carbon rim for enduro bikers. The long development time gives an idea that the new Zipp 3Zero Moto wheel is not just a one-off product. With a single-walled design without a hollow chamber, the Americans want to build carbon wheels for MTBs that are even more stable than comparable aluminium counterparts. In 27.5 and 29 inches.
The facts at a glance: Price: 1999 euros for the wheelset with Zipp hubs / 700 euros for the individual rim Weight: 1892 grams (27.5-inch wheelset) Rim width: 30 millimetres Lifetime warranty on the rim
Until the 1930s, all bicycle rims were made without a hollow chamber, often even from wood. It was only with the first aluminium rims that the hollow chamber construction appeared. This made the lightweight aluminium rims extremely stable. If you want to use carbon as a rim material, the single-walled design is again more suitable. Most recently, the Japanese manufacturer Kuroshiro with high-quality carbon rims the single-walled construction for mountain bikers taken up again. The idea behind it: A hollow chamber makes aluminium rims more stable. However, if this design is combined with carbon fibre, the rims often become too stiff. While aluminium rims usually survive hard punctures with a dent, extremely stiff carbon rims allegedly break frequently under the same load - at least that's the reasoning at Zipp.
The new, 30 mm wide Zipp Moto rim can flex significantly more thanks to its flat design without a hollow chamber and should therefore be able to compensate for hard punctures. This should make the carbon wheelset even more durable than a conventional aluminium wheelset and prevent punctures caused by punctures. To emphasise this statement, Zipp even offers a lifetime guarantee on the wheels.
The carbon rims are produced at the Zipp plant in Indianapolis in the USA. For the European market, they are woven into the wheel in Portugal with Sapim D-Light spokes and Zipp hubs. Zipp wheels are only available with an XD freehub. If you want a Shimano-compatible freewheel, you can buy individual rims for 700 euros each and then spoke them yourself with the hub of your choice.
The wheelset was designed for enduro use and weighs 1892 grams. Not an outstanding value for a 27.5-inch wheelset with a 30-millimetre rim (rim width). The acceleration values are also only in the midfield. Due to the exposed spoke nipples, you need two rim tapes to mount the tyre tubeless. The complete wheelset comes with a pair of Quarq Tyrewiz air pressure sensors free of charge.
The first measured values for stiffness and acceleration as well as a first ride impression of the new Zipp 30 Moto wheels can be found in BIKE 6/19 - on newsstands from 2 May.
