In a market dominated by deep-section aero wheels, lightweight alternatives have taken a back seat over recent years, but Zipp is redressing the balance with the return of its 202 NSW – its lightest wheelset ever at a claimed 1,090g.
Zipp originally introduced the 202 NSW wheelset to its range in 2016 (although Zipp 202 models existed as far back as 2004), but the SRAM-owned brand has focused on its deeper-section wheels in recent years. Now the 202 NSW is back, and it’s lighter than ever.
“There is a perception that every bike in the pro peloton is right at the UCI’s 6.8kg minimum weight limit, but that’s not the truth,” says Ben Waite, senior design engineer at Zipp. “A lot of bikes are 300, 400, even 500g heavy. So the 202 stems from the idea that we wanted to give racers the option to put on a wheelset to get their bike to the UCI minimum for the days that the road kicks uphill and where you need lightweight over aero.”
Zipp says, “The Zipp 202 NSW is crafted with the climbing specialist in mind, bringing weightless speed to the steepest of grades, empowering riders to reach the summit faster on our lightest wheelset ever.”
Zipp’s 1,090g claimed weight includes tubeless rim tape and valves, and the company says that the vast majority of wheelsets it produces will actually be lighter than that because it includes 90th percentile rim weights (towards the heavier end of all of those that come off the production line) in its calculations.
“The 202 NSW does more than climb fast; it provides aero advantage for the race to the climb and is designed for confidence on the getaway descent,” says Zipp.
The rims are 35mm deep. While we’re covering dimensions, the inner width is 23mm and the external width is 28mm.
“Building on the carbon layup found in the state-of-the-art 353 NSW, the 202 NSW features our Biomimetic Laminate which utilises mixed-modulus carbon types to maximise stiffness at the spoke bed and toughness at the tyre bed, mimicking the function of a muscle tendon,” says Zipp.
Biomimetics is the imitation of nature or natural processes to solve human problems. The Sawtooth rim profile found on some other Zipp models is partly inspired by a humpback whale, for example, while rival wheel brand Scope uses patent-pending Aeroscales, inspired by fish scales, to stabilise airflow and reduce drag. There’s a lot of it about.
“The 202 NSW is by far the most complex rim that we manufacture,” says Ben Waite. “It’s complex in the sense that it has over 50 individual strips of carbon we manually put into it. For those 50 strips, we use five different fibre types
“Most manufacturers just use off-the-shelf carbon fibre because it’s readily available, but we really wanted to get some really specific intermediate modulus and high modulus fibres.
“At the tyre bed, we used material, fibre angles and resin to make this a really high toughness area so it can absorb impacts. And then at the spoke bed of the rim we used fibre angles, resin and the fibre type to make it very, very stiff. We don’t use the high modulus – the high stiffness – at the tyre bed, because the downside of being stiff is that it’s brittle. This is where we were able to accomplish the weights that we got and the strength in all of our testing of the 202.”
The rims are a TSS (Tubless Straight Side) design, meaning that they’re hookless and require the use of TSS-compatible tyres. Zipp recommends the use of 28mm tyres at a maximum pressure of 72 psi, although you can use 30-32mm tyres at a maximum pressure of 65 psi. The pressure limits are printed on each rim.
All sorts has been said and written about hookless rims over the past couple of years, including by former Zipp technical director Josh Poertner, now CEO of Silca, who first condemned hookless rims for road riding as “a scam” before dialling it back a little and saying that he just wanted them to go away. Zipp still believes in the tech, as long as you use compatible tyres at the correct pressure.
What if you don’t want to run them tubeless?
“Tubes can be used with the 202 NSW wheel,” says Zipp. “A hookless compatible tyre (either from the Zipp Tyre Compatibility Chart or a tyre deemed compatible by your tyre manufacturer) must be used.”
The hubset is Zipp’s existing ZR1 SL, as used on its other NSW wheels since last year, with GRW ceramic bearings and 66 points of engagement. The 202 NSW rear wheel comes with XDR or SRAM/Shimano driver bodies. A Campagnolo N3W driver body option is sold separately. The spokes are J-bend Alpina Hyperlite stainless steel, 20 per wheel.
The wheelset has a maximum system weight limit (bike, rider, and all equipment) of 115kg.
The SRAM 202 NSW front wheel is priced at £1,520, while the rear is £1,875. This includes a lifetime warranty that covers you for any manufacturing defects – obviously – and also for any structural damage that occurs to the rim while riding, including damage from a crash or rim impact.
We have some Zipp 202 NSW wheels on the way to road.cc, so we’ll have a review coming along soon.
2 thoughts on “Zipp unveils its lightest wheelset ever: 202 NSW returns”
I wonder when they’ll look to update the 353 NSW and 404s? It seems like an age.
It’s surprising that they haven’t gone with carbon spokes for such wheels. Either they are way behind on that tech’ or their testing has suggested there are compromises they don’t want to deal with. Interesting.