Last summer Zipp showed us that they’ve finally started to transition to tubeless ready rim profiles & beads for some of their carbon clinchers wheels. That started with the disc brake version of the popular mid-depth 303 wheels, which they say gets a lot of cross-over use racing cyclocross. But those wheels proved themselves racing on the road and now get Zipp tubeless tires to match. The new race-ready Zipp Tangente Speed tubeless tires deliver top-level performance for lower rolling resistance and improved grip and come in both 25mm & 28mm variants. Get the rull details and a closer look after the jump…
Zipp claims ‘best-in-class performance’ compared to the tubeless road race tires on the market today. That extends to saying that the Tangente Speed has the lowest rolling resistance, best dry grip & best overall cornering grip of all the major brands they had tested by an independent lab.
The Tangente Speed comes in two width versions RT25 & RT28 to meet the current standard of road and endurance road tire preferences. They also say that they were developed and manufactured according to ETRTO (that still leans heavily on narrow rim profiles) which means that they may end up measuring a bit wider mounted on the current wide crop of tires, like their own 21mm internal 303 Disc wheels and 30 Course alloy wheels of the same width.
The tires get 127tpi nylon casings (down from 220tpi of the non-tubeless version to hold the air in), a polyamide anti-puncture layer under the tread, and 60 ShA durometer rubber in a smooth tread with shoulder sipes to clear water when cornering (although in a less pronounced design than their non-tubeless Speed siblings). The 25mm RT25 is claimed to weigh 292g a piece and is rated to 115psi, while the RT28 is 302g and goes up to a 100psi limit. The tires will each sell for $74/84€/£71 with retail availability set for June for the 25mm ones and August for the 28s.
It’s good to see Zipp join the road tubeless movement so more riders can run lower tire pressures, get improved grip and reduced pinch flat risk. It’ll be interesting now to see which other carbon wheels and how quickly they will join the disc brake 303 to gain tubeless compatibility?
