First Ride: Zipp Enters the Mountain Bike World With New 3Zero Moto Carbon Wheels
Zipp are typically associated with the leg shaving, gram counting, aero-obsessed side of the cycling world, but that's about to change with the launch of the new 3Zero Moto carbon wheels. Made in Indianapolis, Indiana, the wheels use a single wall rim design that's intended to deliver a level of compliance and traction unlike anything currently on the market.
The initial concept of a single wall rim was brought to the table in 2012, but other projects took priority until 2016 when the idea was revisited. It wasn't a quick process - Zipp's engineers experimented with over 112 different laminate configurations and six different resins on their way to creating the final product.
The initial concept of a single wall rim was brought to the table in 2012, but other projects took priority until 2016 when the idea was revisited. It wasn't a quick process - Zipp's engineers experimented with over 112 different laminate configurations and six different resins on their way to creating the final product.
Zipp 3Zero Moto Details
• Intended use: trail / enduro
• Single wall carbon fiber rim
• 32 hole, 3-cross lacing
• 37.5mm external, 30mm internal width
• Hub: 4 pawls, 52 points of engagement
• Weight: 1910 grams (29") / 1825 grams (27.5")
• Laid up and molded in Indianapolis, USA
• Lifetime warranty
• Price: $1,999 USD / $700 rim only
• www.zipp.com
• Intended use: trail / enduro
• Single wall carbon fiber rim
• 32 hole, 3-cross lacing
• 37.5mm external, 30mm internal width
• Hub: 4 pawls, 52 points of engagement
• Weight: 1910 grams (29") / 1825 grams (27.5")
• Laid up and molded in Indianapolis, USA
• Lifetime warranty
• Price: $1,999 USD / $700 rim only
• www.zipp.com
The wheels are built for aggressive trail riding, and while they're designed to handle all of the rigors of enduro racing - Adrien Dailly and Jerome Clementz have had podium appearances with them - Zipp stress that they aren't meant for DH or e-bike riders. In other words, if you have a dual crown fork or a motor on your bike, these aren't the wheels for you.
In addition to being pre-taped and ready for tubeless tire installation right out of the box, the wheels are equipped with TyreWiz for easy tire pressure monitoring. The TyreWiz app allows riders to set their preferred tire pressure, and then a light on the valve-stem mounted device blinks red or green to signal if the pressure is correct. Even if you don't have a smartphone with you, the LED will still indicate whether or not the pressure needs to be adjusted.
The low profile rim shape gives the wheels a featherweight look, but they're actually not the lightest option out there – the 27.5” version weighs a claimed 1825 grams, and the 29” model is 1910 grams. The rim alone weighs between 535 - 565 grams depending on the size. The complete wheelset is priced at $1,999 USD, or the rims are available for $700 each.
The rim shape does require an extra layer of nylon rim tape to keep the spoke nipples from poking through, and care needs to be taken to get the spoke length right.
Details
The vast majority of carbon mountain bike rims on the market have a very similar shape to their aluminum counterparts, which isn't that surprising – the box shaped profile is a proven design that's been around since the 1930s. It's an effective way to create a stiff and strong rim, but it's also possible to create a rim that's too stiff, especially when carbon fiber is used.
The 3Zero Moto rim is designed to flex out of the way during an impact.
Drawing inspiration from the single wall rim profile used on motocross motorcycles, Zipp's engineers came up with a rim shape that's actually designed to pivot from side to side around the spokes. Now, this isn't the first single walled carbon mountain bike rim to hit the market - Mello Boumeester debuted his carbon rim design in late 2014, but at the moment single wall rims are still a rarity. Zipp call the rim's motion around the spokes "ankle compliance," stating that it “allows the rim to locally flex and stay parallel to the ground during cornering, which increases traction much like a human ankle.” That motion is also claimed to help prevent pinch flats and rim damage compared to a traditional, more rigid box shaped rim. According to Zipp, during the development of the wheels 37 riders rode over 35,000 miles with only two reported pinch flats.
That's one of the early rim profiles on the left, and the final iteration on the right.
The wheels are built with 32 spokes in a three-cross pattern in order to help spread out the load that's placed on each individual spoke. There's also a washer under each nipple to prevent them from digging into the rim itself. The rims are designed specifically for use with Boost or SuperBoost hubs – the wider bracing angle of those hubs is needed to provide enough lateral stiffness.
The ZM1 hubs use a four pawl design, with 52 points of engagement - that equates to 6.9-degrees of crank rotation between engagement points. There are Hyperglide and XD driver options for the hub, but no Microspline - riders that are keen on running an XTR drivetrain will need to purchase 3Zero Moto rims and build up their own wheelset.
The ZM1 hubs use a four pawl design, with 52 points of engagement - that equates to 6.9-degrees of crank rotation between engagement points. There are Hyperglide and XD driver options for the hub, but no Microspline - riders that are keen on running an XTR drivetrain will need to purchase 3Zero Moto rims and build up their own wheelset.
What's the benefit of the 3ZeroMoto wheels over a set of aluminum wheels? According to Zipp, the wheels are able to survive impacts that would completely destroy an aluminum rim, and do a better job of damping low power, high-frequency impacts, the type of forces that can lead to hand and arm fatigue.
There are multiple Speed Line stripe color options available for that extra level of customization.
TyreWiz is included with all wheelsets. It's a simple, lightweight device that makes it easy to monitor tire pressure via an app or the blinking LED on the unit itself.
I attended a simulated test session hosted by Zipp in Sintra, Portugal, which followed a similar format to what was used during the development of the 3Zero Moto wheels. Riders started by taking a few laps on their own wheels, then switched to the 3Zero Motos, and then back to their original setup, taking notes between each lap. The tire model and air pressure was the same on all of the wheels in order to keep things as consistent as possible.
I started out on a set of Roval Traverse carbon wheels, which I reviewed earlier this year. They're stiff and precise without being overly harsh, and they've held up well to everything I've thrown at them. In short, a good benchmark to compare the 3Zero Moto wheels to. Once those first laps were completed, I made the swap to the 3Zero Moto wheels. Part way through my first lap on the Zipp wheels it became apparent that there was a clear difference, and a significant one at that. The Zipp wheels were noticeably more compliant, but this wasn't a case of carbon wheels feeling like aluminum – it was a different sensation altogether. It felt like there was more 'give' to the wheels, but they still had plenty of support for hard cornering and landing jumps and drops.
One section of trail had an extended straightaway that was full of roots covered by an inch or so of dust. Those hidden roots made it tricky to hold a line; letting off the brakes, looking ahead and hanging on for the ride seemed like the best tactic. With the Roval wheels, I had to really focus to keep the bike tracking the way I wanted it to due to all of those repeated, erratic impacts. On the 3Zero Moto wheels it was a different story – there was a level of traction that wasn't present with the Rovals, and it was much easier to keep the bike heading the way I wanted it to.
When I switched back to the Roval wheels, the difference in handling became even more clear. The Rovals felt stiffer and more precise, but they didn't offer the same level of grip and resistance to deflection as the 3Zero Moto wheels. They also transmitted more feedback into my hands and forearms – the 3Zero Motos had a much more 'comfortable' ride feel, similar to what running 20 psi versus 30 psi in your tires feels like.
Zipp's claims of compliance, pinch flat prevention, and superior impact resistance to aluminum rims are sure to raise some eyebrows, but I'm convinced the 3Zero Moto wheels have the potential to offer a significant performance benefit by delivering a very noticeable increase in traction and comfort in rough conditions. Keep in mind that a few rides doesn't constitute a full review – I'm going to keep putting the miles in on these wheels in order to test out those durability claims. I'm also curious if comfort leads to better lap times out on the trail, and how a bike will handle with a Zipp wheel up front and a stiffer wheel in the back, or vice versa. The 3Zero Motos are a very interesting new option, a direct challenge to the 'stiffer is better' mantra that's often touted in regards to carbon wheels.
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
also i'd be worried about durability. they claim at least one set of wheels made about 1000 miles. but in what conditions.. and my wheels already have way over 1000 miles with no issue anyway. I feel like you want 10k miles for one set of wheels, tested on multiple sets. also was it 1000 miles no touch? did they true them up? etc.
and ankles would form a team like no other, except for Starsky & Hutch, Ponch & Jon, Gwin & Mullally...
Based on how ignorant your comment is I am guessing you have no idea how dependent you really are on engineers for everything from utilities, to transport (and bicycles), to accommodation, to software, etc, etc, etc.
are the same?
www.instagram.com/p/But6vG5FEtW
Reasons remain unclear.
Also, Aston and PB parted ways for reasons completely unrelated to that review.
@notphaedrus No. If we didn't stand behind the Enve review we wouldn't have published it.
In any case I do hope future review will be as genuine! I understand that it may mean you get less samples and tests in the future, but damn, he echoed what we all knew to be true and that was nice.
m
Also, they state that this "ankle-ing" is too excessive if used on 142mm hubs, but fine on 148mm and 157mm hubs, So apparently the behavior is so sensitive to bracing angle of the spokes that the ~ 0.5 degree difference between boost and non-boost is a deal breaker. If one accepts that premise, then why wouldn't the ankle-ing behavior also be radically different between left turns and right turns? The limiting bracing angle on a rear hub is typically > 2 degree difference side to side, far greater than the difference between boost and non-boost. In theory the offset nipple drilling apparent in the photo could counteract that, but then you'd also have dramatically different "effective lever length" of the rim cross section, which would also cause substantially different scale of ankle-ing on turns of one direction versus another.
I doubt these things 'ankle' as much as the marketing seems to imply. My guess is the ride feel comes more from the single wall low profile nature of the rim (like the mentioned Boumeester rims) than from the so-called 'ankling'.
That's the comparative test I'd love to see from Mike, these Zipp 3zeros vs the Boumeester Tammar vs Mr. Boumeesters latest product the Crankbrothers Synthesis.
@Ttimer: To be honest I don't think this article is dripping with buzzwords and all that. But that isn't my point. Most of the carbon rims I've seen (not including the Bouwmeester ones indeed) are what we call "black metal design" products (not related to rock music). That is, they take a design optimized for aluminium production and performance and make it out of this very different material, merely doing some redimensioning. Hollow profiles are really easy and cheap to extrude out of aluminium and it is equally easy to form these into a hoop. To do that with a composite however is just so much more difficult, I don't get why they'd even bother. Instead what they did here at Zipp is produce a rim in a way that suits the material (I expect it to be wound out of a single fiber) and tune it for what advantages such a more flexible rim (due to the lower height) would give you. That's good. Obviously the holes for rims and spokes are still a bit of a compromise but I get that they did try to make it suit conventional (hub and spoke) systems. Inspired by these older coaches with wooden wheels (as carbon composite is more like wood than metal) one thing to try would be to use thick stiff spokes loaded in compression. A bit like Spengle does but they would still want that ball joint between spoke and rim so that would make it too complex. So yeah for now what I like about this concept is that they looked at the strengths the material and related production process would give to the product and designed around that.
Though as I said, I prefer to be at the tail end of technological progress. I'll give them some more time to process the feedback (and warranty claims) from early adopters, probably tweak the design and resin formulation a little (always wary of delamination the more a composite is designed to flex) and obviously allow them to adapt to this new 26" wheelsize. So yeah, maybe in a couple of years they'll release their 26" rim without Quark sensor, 25% heavier, thermoplastic resin, aluminium center channel to do away with the holes in the composite, version with a lower price. That's when it gets interesting. Obviously I welcome all early adopters to invest and make sure their subsequent versions are even better. That said, compared to other carbon rims currently on the market, for a rim with lifetime warranty and a Quark sensor, the price seems on par.
So what is my 180mm travel SC rig then? It alwo has 195mm of rear travel. This sounds like they could easily take that lifetime warranty from you with this reason. Also a wheel set that heavy what is not good enough for DH? The heck, my AL Newmen EG.30 are almost 200g lighter and are good for DH.
Another way to look at it would be that they just make a simpler shape that is cheaper to produce with carbon.
The result is a rim that is heavier than a heavy duty alloy rim (EX511), compliant like an alloy rim, at best a little bit more impact resistant but costs rougly 5-7 times as much. Where is the substantial performance benefit?
Actual performance benefits (e.g. weight) might arise when using carbon fiber instead of steel spokes. Carbon rims would be a byproduct because it would allow the spokes to be laminated directly to the rim.
It seems lots of people don't accept the weight increase (for the same application) over the conventional option and if that is such a big deal then I'd say this is just not an option for those. We've seen this before with suspension, disc brakes, dropper seatposts, tire inserts etc. Just like with suspension, the performance increase I see here is that if it really works are described in the article, it would be the increase in grip because of the compliance. Heavy wheels increase unsprung weight but if there is more suspension in the wheel itself (tire and rim deformation), this may not be entirely true. Same with a bike with suspension vs a lighter weight rigid hardtail. If you need the lighter wheels for quicker acceleration out of the start gate then yeah, the weight of these wheels may still give you a disadvantage.
If the price is lower I would not care about the weight. The thing I ask with that many weight how can those rims excluded eMTBs? What's the f*cking difference? Only 10 kg more , some riders don't need a Motor to be more heavy. A Freerider would punish wheel much more then a damn eMTB.
I also don't see how they make a difference between DH and enduro with way more Huck capabilities of modern Enduros.
Seriously, one of the best answers in this whole forum, though I’m not an engineer. But it made sense to this layman.
Also- doesn’t sram own Zipp? Interesting to see this fall under the Zipp brand.
Just goes to show that for identical products you'll find every possible experience
I must be the one off. I have 303s on my gravel bike and have raced them in many very rough gravel races and they hold up fine. But I am a little guy at 6’4” 210. The main reason you see so many destroyed 303s is that they are used for so much cross racing where they are beat to shit.
-nobody
Wut? All my hard riding buddies won't go near carbon rims anymore... too many broken dreams.
anything over 30 mph in the air and you could really tell how out of balance they were. I think it was close to 3.5 oz total.
you have seen this latest generation, yes? :-)
Personally I'm curious about how a rim can be laterally and vertically stiff, vertically compliant, yet still be able to have lateral 'twist' at any point in the rim engineered into the design.
This. Again the bike industry is capitalizing on supposed performance gains even though the construction process ends up being cheaper. Somewhere some sucker is already drooling over the bro fame of being an early adopter anyways, hence why they don't even bother passing on these cost reductions to the consumer anymore. Just label it "new technology" and people will happily pay for your claimed "increased R&D cost" without any further questions.
Not only are you comparing apples and oranges, but you have also misrepresented your apples and oranges.
but it works with the bouwmeester wheel.
Sometimes compromises are compromises and theres things that youll take what you can get.
And my point is that if the spoke are running around a straight line along the rim (non centered, asymmetrical rim), there is one side of the rim being able to flexed more by the tire doing its cornering job, that the other. If you have a ME degree you should be able to see this. There will be just more leverage in one side than the other
I choose not to drink SRAM's characteristically sensationalist marketing kool-aid for now, but I look forward to reading the long term review.
maybe I read the press realese too fast. Is the motor in the rear hub? help me out here.
Hey, but thats my opinion. Same as nothing.
I like the concept but I definitely think it would require proprietary nipples/seats.
What do you think ? @mikekazimer:
I did use mastik tubular glue and glued 5mm thick rubber bumper guards (cut from thorn resistant inner tube) to the inside and top of the sidewalls after the rubber cement tubular split tubeless tire install. Lightweight, no more tire damage, no pinch flats, no rim damage, no burps, and I've also noticed more tire compliance as described in this review. It takes a long time to set up and you have to use a wide rim, but it will probably at least triple the lifespan of your carbon rim and give you much better performance.
Also Twenty 6ers4life *Runs 2.8" tyres at low pressure with 180mm travel*
Twenty6ers4life's bike: *Is heavy*
Twenty6ers4life: :0
Patrick9-32 :0
www.pinkbike.com/photo/16563144
Hot Take Blogvertising.
It's in like the third paragraph. Try reading the article.
Probably they meant the cellphones that you'll need to read the pressure.
also can't believe that people havn't complained that the hubs don't have enough engagement points...
*cough* aluminum *cough*
I wonder how sensitive they are to tire width -- super wide tires would have more leverage; Zipp might be really prescriptive about tire width and profile to get the right results?
Note, however, that they're not really addressing whether they did anything about engineering in graceful failure. When an alloy rim fails, even though it might taco, it usually stays more or less the same diameter. When a composite wheel fails, it often collapses on itself. So far, the only carbon wheels I've seen advertised as engineered to fail gracefully the way we're used to from alloy are Santa Cruz - I'd hope the rest of them are doing that as well, and are just not trumpeting it because you don't really want to lead your marketing with making people think of failing wheels.