Zipp 808 NSW Carbon Clincher Road Wheelset

If you consider Zipp's 808 NSW Carbon Clincher Road Wheelset on the virtues of its wind tunnel numbers and dry, technical engineering data alone, it's a pretty damn impressive wheelset. The egghead, science y pedigree is legit, and the numbers definitely speak to our cerebral appreciation of the quantifiable aspects of cycling innovation. But the visceral feeling produced by riding Zipp's flagship model in anger is far less cerebral. Rather than hard numbers and data, that feeling is best expressed by a breathless my oh my. The benefits of the new design go beyond the rim to include a revolutionary new freehub however, this being Zipp, you'll understand if we kick things off with the rim. We're always ready to welcome any wind taming benefits, but we're actually a little more excited about the improved braking. The rims are equipped with an updated version of Zipp's Showstopper brake track, which enjoyed an impressive debut on Zipp's Firestrike rim but has already been improved for the NSW line. It's still imbued with the same silicon carbide particles, but the direction specific grooves have increased in number and changed in depth. The original Showstopper netted some pretty impressive stopping across all conditions, but Zipp assures us that the new version is even better. The upshot is you can hold speed longer while approaching a corner, braking later and gaining tiny increments of time with each bend or switchback. You can also, you know, stop reliably when obstacles like darting dogs, inattentive motorists, or run off debris on a fast canyon descent make unexpected cameos in your ride. Ok, we now return to the subject you probably expected to be the headline for a new Zipp wheel. The brand's signature Aerodynamic Boundary Layer Control ABLC dimpling returns with a new designation. It's called SawTooth Technology, and it consists of ABLC dimples applied in a single pattern repeated in 12 discrete swathes or nodes across the rim's surface, looking ...