ZIPP 3ZERO MOTO Wheels

WITH ALL THE COMPONENTS ON THE MARKET THESE DAYS THERE HAVE BEEN A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS WHICH HAVE DIVIDED OPINION, ONE OBVIOUS ONE, IS A CARBON WHEEL BETTER THAN AN ALLOY WHEEL? WELL TO TELL THE TRUTH WE CAN’T REALLY GIVE YOU A DEFINITIVE ANSWER ON THAT. IT IS FAST BECOMING AN AGE-OLD QUESTION LIKE THE QUESTION, IS A 29-INCH WHEEL BETTER THAN A 27.5-INCH WHEEL? A LOT OF THE ANSWERS COME DOWN TO PERSONAL PREFERENCE AND RIDING STYLE. CARBON WHEELS HAVE HAD A HIT AND MISS REPUTATION WITH THE MTB CROWD WITH MIXED OPINIONS IN CONFIDENCE IN RELATION TO THEIR DURABILITY, PERFORMANCE, AND FEEL. WHAT WE MEAN BY THE TERM ‘FEEL’ RELATES TO THE HARSHER OR MORE SENSITIVE SENSATION IN TRAIL FEEDBACK THROUGH THE BARS YOU GET FROM CARBON HOOPS. SOME PEOPLE REALLY LIKE HOW THEY FEEL DUE TO THE PREDICTABLE FEEL OF CARBON HOOPS BUT IN SHORT, SOME RIDERS AREN’T A FAN, I GUESS IT IS FAIR TO SAY OPINIONS ON THOSE SUBTLE DIFFERENCES STILL VARY.

Give us the back story of Zipp and their wheel program?

Zipp wheels have been a dominant force in the road bike and triathlon scene for well over 2 decades. This brand has set the benchmark and pushed the boundaries for wheel performance, as a matter of fact, they dabbled in the production of 26-inch carbon MTB wheels which were on show as a prototype at the 1996 MTB world championships in Cairns Australia. So, these guys are no stranger to building performance wheelsets. We know for a fact that Zipp’s 3ZERO all-new MOTO wheelset has been put through its paces as a prototype for over 2 years now by some of the Mountain Bike world's hardest chargers, so we doubt a company like Zipp would risk tarnishing its reputation by releasing a substandard wheelset.

There are plenty of carbon wheels on the market so what sets these apart from the pack?

I guess the real question is, are they worth the extra money? That question is a little hard to answer in the sense that if you are a hard DH charger or just hard on your products you may want to stick with alloy, however, if you are a racer and you’re looking for that edge in speed a sure way of improving those times and the performance of your whip is a good quality wheelset. The crew at Revolution MTB mag have been lucky enough to have a set strapped to an enduro rig for some time now and we have been kind enough to deliver this wheelset an absolute beating. One thing we noticed was these wheels feel a hell of a lot different from the majority of other carbon wheels we’ve tested but we’ll get to that soon.

Oaky so hit us with the key details about how they’re designed and why they ‘feel’ so different to other wheelsets whilst you’re riding?