Video: Zipp 454 NSW Inside Story

Have to agree on the tubeless front. They’re not disc specific, and not tubeless. Same old clincher tech without any meaningful improvements.

understandably these are meant for pros, but why not invest in present/future tech?

Watched most of the vid but tuned out near the end – maybe I missed something while they showed humpback whales. At any point does Zipp actually address whether these things have less drag in the wind tunnel at various yaw angles than other current rim shapes? Would seem to be one of the more relevant metrics, no?

The primary focus here seems to be on stability in common crosswind conditions and not on outright drag reduction. You know a 404 is more aero, but a 303 will be better in crosswinds, but if the 454 was both, would you want it? Obviously the price tag makes that no more than a hypothetical exercise…I’d just get 303s.

I do wonder about the lack of tubulars, though more teams are going towards clinchers. None of their NSW wheels (with Cognition hubs) are currently offered as a disc-brake model; perhaps one is coming but the design of the hub (front especially) may limit them to rim brakes.

If the front and rear rims have a different number of ‘HyperFoils’, how does the differing angular velocity affect the flow attachment and downstream characteristics? At what velocity (ω) do the the wheels achieve increased flow attachment and how sensitive is that attachment?

It’s interesting that through exhaustive tunnel-testing and CFD aided ‘design optimization’ (in what looks to have been static, or non rotational testing conditions), that the number of HyperFoils ends up being 18 on the front and 24 on the rear. I’d like to see the white paper on these findings.