The hubs were one of the reasons why I sold all my Zipps and replaced them with Roval and Reserve wheels (with DT Swiss hubs). My experience is that the Zipp 76/176 hubs are not made for rainy conditions. Also, the standard bearings are of low quality. I replaced the bearings of one wheelset with C-bear ceramic bearings and after that the 76/176 hubs worked fine, without any issues.
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Ooof not a ringing endorsement for Zipp but I appreciate the input!! Did you have issues with the Zipp rims? Wondering if you considered rebuilding them with better hubs or was it just not worth the hassle?
My last gravel wheelset was Roval (DT Swiss 350) and current road wheels are Reserve (DT Swiss 350)…both wheelsets have been trouble free of course.
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No, I never had issues with the rims. The wheels were also built well and stayed straight and true for all the years I owned them. I considered rebuilding the rims with better hubs, but then in the end I just did not bother.
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I was torn between the Reserve’s and Zipps when I built my bike last fall. It was soon after the 303 XPLR were released.
I found similar complaints about Zipp hubs mentioned here as well. I went with the Reserve’s and the very durable DT Swiss 350’s. Particularly for gravel conditions, reliability and durability of components can certainly outweigh very slight performance increases. The wheels are a part of my build I haven’t second guessed at all.
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I have and ridden now both 40mm and 45mm Caracal race tanwalls couple of hundred kilometers. Both fast and very comfortable. You can feel weight of 45mm when accelerating but they keep going fast when speed is up. 45mm measures on XPLR 51mm wide. 40mm is hair over 44mm. Superb tires. I have ridden 40mm also 1.7bar front and 1.8bar rear. Fast and eats up almost everything and goes well on tarmac too. My weight is 94kg nekkid.
My normal riding pressures 45mm 1.75/1.85bar and 40mm 2.0/2.1bar. No leaking small holes/wet spots despite hit 45mm hard in some sharp object. Any other tyre 100% would have got hole too.
fwiw i have the XPLR and 303FC with ZR1 DB hub. I did have to replace the freehub body two years ago but that was after 2023 Unbound. To be honest I don’t think any hub would have survive that mud…
Anyway in my experience the hubs have been totally fine. I think the issues are more from the past and/or the entry level hubs. YMMV but I have loved my Zipp wheels.
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Posting measurements in case helpful for others as I just did some tire swapping (would love to see others’ data as well!)
Pathfinder 47mm → measure 49mm
Continental Terra Speed 45mm → measure 47.5mm
Schwalbe Gone RX Pro 45mm → measure 48mm
Schwalbe Gone RX Pro 50mm → measure 53mm
Curious if anyone has run new Tracer or Pathfinder in 45mm or 50mm!
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Today I have a pair of Zipp 303 s that I bought used from a friend. Im using Tufo Thundero 48mm on them.
Im thinking about selling them and getting the Zipp 303 XPLR S instead. Is the change worth it or should I save my money and keep my 303s? I have a Canyon Grizl and max tyre clearence is 50mm on that, maybe can get 52mm.
Same hub, same rim design (other than width), I think the only thing you would notice is your 48MM Thundero’s would be a few MM wider.
Me, I would save my money, there is plenty of other things to spend it on.
Bicycle station on Youtube did a video where they compared, I think it was a Zipp 353 NSW (similar width) and the new 303 Xplr S. They compared a few different tires, they were notably wider on 303 Xplr s. I think if you planned to run 2.2 or another Mountain bike tire then I would consider it.
Note to the thread, the fearmongering over hookless is funny, its like when disc brake rotors on road bikes were new, they where going to kill everyone in bike races, people were going to lose limbs, now they are the standard and no one talks about the danger of rotors slicing up people anymore.
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Not all tires work on super wide rims. My big gravel kings got really square and handled much worse on a 30mm rim than 25. The regular 303 works well up to 2.2 tires though, so it’s not a bad option. 48 tufos might work well, but i would see if I could find someone who has used it to be safe.
i have Tufo 48 today on my regular 303 s. Zipps tire compatibility says max 50mm on their site. Is it possible anyway to use like 2.1 and 2.2 tires?
Hey! I’m looking into getting these Reserve 40/44 Gr wheels. Would you say the ride is stiff or do the wheels have some damping and help soften the vibrations?
Hmmm. I’d say they are pretty stiff. They are aero race wheels after all. That being said they feel great with wide tires. But if you are looking for compliant wheels you should get the Reserve 25 GR
I’m considering a new gravel bike as a gravel and road bike and it comes with XPLR wheel set. For road riding, what’s the fastest tire that works on these rims? I believe the tires needs to be a 40. Not sure if the Goodyear Vector XPLR 40 are fast, or if there is a better tire for road riding (tons of info for gravel, but I haven’t found much for using this on the road). Thanks!
The Caracal race mentioned in this thread is fast on the road too.
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Two others choices are Pirelli‘s P-Zero and Vittoria‘s Corsa Control, Both come in 40 mm versions.
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Pirelli’s P zero works just fine. I know a bunch of guys who run it and have no problem keeping up with our P/cat 1 group rides. Its gonna be a little bit slower. Kinda like going from an hill climbing bike on flat roads to an aero bike. But you should be fine.
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I run the xplr sw’s (same width as the S version) and have been running tires that aren’t on the official “approved” list. I wish they would test/approve more options, but I don’t worry too much about it with the tires I’ve mounted so far. I find the fit to be extremely tight (annoyingly so when swapping tires), I’d be more concerned if they weren’t so hard to get on and off.
I’ve run the following with no issue -
Conti race kings 2.2’s
conti dub RR 2.4’s
schwalbe g-one RS pro 50’s
g-one speed pro 2.35’s
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Good feedback, thanks!
What kind of pressures are you running, in particular on the G-One RS Pros? I’m assuming no flats yet as you said no issues. Also what sealant- orange, stans, silca?
Gravel bike I’ve ordered includes the XPLR SW, so trying to gauge what tires to use.
Late to this party, but there’s a bunch of comparable 37-40mm wide rims available from the DTC wheel brands, and most importantly, are not hookless.
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