Zipp 202 NSW Carbon Disc Brake Wheel - Tubeless

Brand	Zipp
Category	BIKECOMPONENTS
Seller	Backcountry

The old rules of wheel design no longer apply. Drag matters, even while grinding up HC-grade climbs in today's climb- and knee-friendly gear ratios. But what goes up, must come down, and descending on carbon rims that maximize aerodynamics while pedaling can be an exercise in heartrate elevation while braking on carbon through tightly winding descents. Zipp's tubeless 202 NSW Carbon Disc Brake Wheelset addresses both concerns by incorporating the aerodynamic features the brand built an empire on and adding the confident modulation of disc brakes. The better grip and more efficient rolling of tubeless tires also helps for climbing and descending, and the new freehub engages more quickly and freewheels with less drag. Better up, better down, better all the way around. We'll get to all of that tech below, but it's always appropriate to start with aerodynamics (or ""speed weaponry"") when discussing Zipp, and the signature Aerodynamic Boundary Layer Control (ABLC) dimpling returns with a new designation. It's called SawTooth Technology, and it consists of ABLC dimples applied in a single pattern repeated in 12 discrete swathes (or ""nodes"") across the rim's surface, looking much like the strokes of a paint brush. Zipp claims that SawTooth reduces side wind forces by ""reducing the laminar bubble effect on the aerodynamically shielded side of the rim's profile."" Translated into less technical terms, that means the rim's dimpling is designed to dispel the negative, drag-inducing force on the rim's non-wind side. SawTooth's premise stems from 42 computational fluid dynamics studies and testing that spilled out of the wind tunnel onto--gasp!--actual roads. In actual wind. You know, the conditions that we actual cyclists face every time we throw a leg over the top tube either side of trainer season. To help understand how SawTooth works, consider an aerodynamic NACA shape in the pristine wind tunnel conditions of zero-degrees yaw. When air resistance is perfectly head-on, dra...   read more