Zipp drops dimples & price for new 302 carbon clinchers, adds discs to 454 NSW

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My wife is an architect, I can assure you, they don’t make enough money to afford Zipp wheels.
I rode mountain bikes with two dentists all weekend, some of the nicest guys I’ve ever ridden with, one guy had an old beat up XC bike and the other had an aluminum fatty that was well ridden. Neither had fancy wheels, or was using Strava.
Maybe you’re just jealous. (deleted)

They are basically making wheels for Performance. Nothing wrong with that. But I am sure sales on the very high end are not what they used to be and they know an account like Performance will order several thousand sets as long as they hit a certain price point.

Just throwing this out there: Where I work, when we introduce a lower-priced, domestically-produced product, the single most important factor in reducing the price is the elimination of human (worker) interaction with that product.
In Zipp’s case, a not-insignificant labor reduction might have initially come from the smooth sidewall mold.
Molds of high quality are *expensive*. Tens of thousands of dollars or more, in many cases. The time it takes to do the programming for the molds is also expensive. As is the software (again, it can be tens of thousands of dollars for the software seat). Lumpy, complex shapes, like on the 454 rim, take *a lot* longer to properly program, and those lumpy, complex molds take a longer time to finish (often by hand), and they don’t last forever. Then the molded part has to be finished. More labor.
With a smooth mold, there would be a lot of design work and finishing required, but a fair amount less than a lumpy, dimpled one.
Again, just a guess, but the narrow width of the 302 may also be less labor-intensive to manufacture. It may even better lend itself to automation, for one or more reasons. Remember, too, that even corporate teams have limited budgets. They work for a company that’s in business to make money, and using excessive resources on a low-priced product won’t generally be encouraged or tolerated.
I guess the bottom line is this: To reduce the price that significantly, the folks at Zipp had to do certain things that may seem strange to us, but that’s likely the only way they were able to pull it off without sending production overseas.

Ugh. If you’re confused about why one might use brass nipples, it’s because the industry itself is confused. “More durable” could mean a lot of things:
– Brass nipples are self-lubricating and harder, and therefore easier for wheelbuilding machines to handle;
– Brass nipples’ wrench flats can be harder to than aluminum nipples if/when the wheels need to be trued after some use. Aluminum nipples are especially vulnerable to stripping* when threadlocker is used.
– Brass nipples are not subject to galvanic corrosion when in contact with carbon fiber. Aluminum and carbon fiber, when in direct contact, are essentially a battery. The aluminum slowly turns to white jelly.

The second point is no longer true. In the ’80s, when aluminum nipples were made from an alloy with roughly the yield strength of a good Camembert, brass nipples were stronger than aluminum ones. But now, most aluminum nipples are made from 7075-T6, which has a has a yield strength roughly 50% higher than that of common brasses. Sapim mentions this on their web site. That site is full of unscientific claims, but they’re right about the strength of various nipple materials.

Galvanic corrosion is serious; among many others, ENVE has struggled with it. Wet conditions exacerbate galvanic corrosion, and salty, wet conditions are especially bad.

I always use aluminum nipples. I recently built some Chinese carbon rims, and I used clear nail polish to seal inside the spoke holes and the portion of the rim bed where each nipple sits. I used anodized nipples, which puts insulating aluminum oxide between the aluminum and the carbon. Type III anodizaton (“hard” anodization) would be ideal, but I’ve only ever seen type II on nipples). Finally, I lubricated the outside of the nipple head with silicone dielectric (insulating) grease. This pair of wheels won’t be exposed to salt air or road salt, so I expect them to live a long and happy life.

The 302 is not new. Zipp sold these rims laced to DT Swiss 350 hubs through Performance Bikes for more than a year. They were $1300.