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Product Tested:
Zipp 454 NSW
carbon clinchertech talk
R Oad test
hills, it was impressive just how well the
454’s handle descending. Cornering felt
tighter, more like a shallower wheel, which
we guess is due to the varying depths, and
the wheels seemed to hold the road
better. A lot of confidence in the wheels
was drawn from the braking track. The
NSW range of wheels all feature Zipp’s
new silicon carbide ‘Showstopper’ brake
track. Improved grip and little ridges in the
track allow much quicker braking in all
conditions. This means you can brake
much later into corners and feel really
confident that you still have control. Even
on my 2011 Giant Trinity, which had a
reputation for bad braking, I had no issues,
and PB’d my decent of Melbourne’s
legendary 1in20 by 35 sec.
While we can’t get into a wind tunnel to
test these wheels out, when you put all
the things we experienced, together -
increased rigidity, better handling in cross
winds, later breaking and improved
cornering - we would have to say that the
454 NSW’s are a faster wheel than most
wheels out there. In fact, they are probably
our favourite wheels to have ridden.
What’s exciting for us is the trickle
down effect for the future. Things like the
Showstopper breaking and Cognition hubs
will hopefully make their way into future
wheelsets across the board. And
hopefully, we will see deeper versions of
the Sawtooth design, whether that’s an
808 depth or even a 75mm depth you
would have to think they are coming.
At the moment the rather hefty price tag
of the 454 NSW’s would be their biggest
drawback. At around $6000AUD for the
set, the market for them are either people
with deep pockets who are after a bit of bling
or the high-end age grouper, or pro, who is
looking for that little bit of extra time to
win or place in their division at a big race
like Hawaii. Hopefully soon Zipp will be
able to shorten the build time, from the
current 12 hours per wheel and in the process
bring down the price so we can all enjoy
the benefits of this exciting new wheel.Because it’s so hard to write about a
wheelset without something to compare it
to we grabbed a set of 404 Firecrests from
a mate. While they weren’t the NSW
version, they gave us a good comparison.
The 454’s had a notably more rigid feel to
them, which helped to instil a bit more
confidence in them, and the Cognition
hubs were a huge step up from the
standard 404 hubs - they spin a lot longer
than the regular hubs found in the 404’s.
This may have something to do with the
new design of the ‘Cognition’ hub. Those
of you who have the 404 NSW’s will
already know about these hubs, but for
everyone else, they essentially disengage
the ratchet system when free wheeling,
thus creating almost friction-free rolling in
the hub. While this doesn’t mean the
wheels are faster in an all-out effort, it did
allow us to hold speed longer when
coasting on downhills or in a group, which
was pretty cool. There are a couple of
other cool features to the hubs such as the
need for no maintenance or lubrication
due to the use of magnets to operate the
system. They also feature factory set
preload bearings that need no adjustment.
Other than a feeling more ridged and
spinning better, how did the 454’s
perform? Well initially, on our normal test
loop, they didn’t present much faster, if at
all. It was within seconds at approximately
the same power, with both of us
experiencing the same. They certainly felt
more responsive and somehow felt more
stable, but that was it. Our initial rides
were however on fairly calm days, and it
wasn’t until the week leading up to
Challenge Melbourne that we really
noticed a difference in the 454 NSW’s
versus the standard 404’s. Now there
were some seriously windy days around
this time, and it was then that we really
noticed a difference. These wheels just
don’t move. In areas of heavy cross winds
where whoever was on the 404’s had to
sit up to control the bike, whoever was on
the 454’s just rolled on in the aero
position. It was almost comical as
whoever was on the 454’s looked like they
were taking the mickey out of the other.
Just the ability to stay in the aero position
longer helps to make these wheels a fast
option, but the wind wasn’t the only place
that these wheels felt fast. Heading to theA fAST oPTIoN: No matter the weather, you can stay aero with the 454’s.