Are Expensive Carbon Bike Wheels Actually Worth It?

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00:00These wheels are £1,050 and these wheels are £3,200. That's a whopping difference of £2,150.

00:09So we've devised two tests to see if we can find a difference between the two different

00:13wheel sets which for that amount of money you'd hope you could. So I've been joined by Stefan

00:18today and he's going to be our guinea pig. Stefan what's the first test that we're going to do?

00:22So first of all we're going to be looking at the aero performance of these wheels and so

00:26we're going to be riding around a flat TT lap devised by Simon Smyth. What's the second test

00:31we're going to be doing? So the second test is going to be a hill climb. We're going to be going

00:34up the leaf hill and putting in the effort with the two different wheel sets and seeing what the time

00:39is at the top. So Stefan what do you think we could expect to see from this test? So the idea here is

00:45that there are some things like a TT helmet or a skin suit which the aero performance and the

00:51difference between them is pretty tiny. It's not something that you're going to really notice so

00:56much on a ride. It needs to be verified in really controlled conditions of velodrome or a wind tunnel.

01:01There are some differences between components such as between a Dutch bike sit up and beg and a drop

01:06bar road bike where you're going to see those differences like obviously out on the road you'll

01:10feel it instantly you're going to see that in the timings and so the question with these wheels is

01:14is it going to be like the Dutch bike is the difference going to be that palpable or is the difference

01:19marginal? Are we going to see a significant time gap between these two wheels of a similar depth

01:24but very different price point? Absolutely. Right then I think we should get the first set of wheels

01:28fitted and do the first run.

01:39In a test like this there are plenty of variables we need to keep a lid on so we've used the same ties,

01:44sealant, cassettes and rotors across both wheel sets. There are obviously some variables that we can't

01:49have any control of, those being the wind, the traffic and how Stefan paces his effort so this

01:53is very much a rough round the edges real world test. So a little more information about those

01:58wheels. The set that cost £1,050 are the Zip 303S's and the ones coming at £3,200 are the Zip 353 NSW's.

02:06The difference in weight is significantly closer than that of the price differential with just 236 grams

02:12separating the two wheel sets. The actual weights with tape come in at 1308 grams for the 353s and

02:181544 grams for the 303s. The rim profiles are incredibly different between the two wheel sets.

02:25Although both are optimised around 28mm tyres, the NSW's come with an internal rim width of 25mm

02:31compared to 23mm on the 303s. These are both on the wide side for road wheels but the NSW's are

02:37significantly so. Together with the external rim width of 30mm the tyres make a notably smoother and

02:43straighter transition to the rims of the NSW's. This has been proved to be more aero in the wind

02:48tunnel. That narrower internal width on the 303s's gives the tyres more of a mushroom profile.

02:54Another distinctive element of the 353 NSW's can be seen along the sides of the rims. Small dimples are

02:59moulded in similar to that of a golf ball which is supposed to aid efficiency. The fact that a number of

03:04them are partially filled by the stick-on logos may mitigate their effectiveness. Also, the distinctive

03:09undulation of the 353 NSW wheels has been done largely to improve the stability and crosswinds.

03:19Okay so that's the TT done. How did they feel?

03:22And so it didn't feel like there's a massive difference between the wheels and so it wasn't

03:26like the difference between going from a shallow section to a deep section kind of thing but there's

03:31still some differences in the sensation between them. I think that with the 353 NSW's it was mainly

03:36flat but there were some rises and on those uh rises it did feel like that a little bit more

03:41responsive sort of when pressing on the pedals and when it came to um ticking along the flat

03:46um I mean like this isn't a double blind trial like um and so I knew exactly what wheels I was riding so

03:52there is a certain amount of cognitive bias coming in there but they felt nice and going along the flat

03:57they felt fast it felt really good and ticking over and so um yeah the feeling of the 353 NSW's was really

04:03quite good but then the 303s weren't bad at all either. I guess it's that thing of okay well do

04:08they feel two thousand pounds better and that's a trickier question to answer. So then in power

04:13numbers um were you able to match a normalized power? Well in terms of the normalized power I managed to

04:20keep things pretty much perfectly the same between the between the tests which was quite good but in

04:25terms of the times that turned in there's a bit of a surprise bit of a turn up for the books there with

04:30the 353 NSW's uh coming in slightly slower than the 303s and I can tell you the reason uh the traffic

04:38between the guns um it was yeah it was quite different and unfavorably in terms of the uh 353 NSW's and

04:44so I think that's what uh yeah definitely caused the difference there and meant that they ended up

04:49turning in a slower time. Okay so really we're dealing with fine margins because it's not to say that

04:53you know the 303s's are slow wheels um it's just that actually the difference between them wasn't great

04:59enough to overcome the variable the uncontrollable variable of traffic. Yeah exactly pretty much.

05:05Okay okay so I think we need to now put them up a hill climb and see how they perform there.

05:29So that's the hill climb done I imagine that probably wasn't too pleasant for you so how did

05:36you find them um did you notice a difference between the weight because obviously these are 275

05:41grams lighter did you feel that? Um so they're both pretty they're both pretty good wheels I mean it's

05:46not like the 303s um were feeling that particularly heavy they're still around about that um uh 1500

05:51gram mark which is a pretty nice weight for a wheel set the 353 NSW's are that a little bit lighter and um yeah on

05:58the steepest gradients um they do feel a little bit more responsive like you get that sensation through

06:03the pedals as you're um pressing the cranks. And then were there any other kind of benefits of those

06:07wheels that you you felt? Um no I mean it wasn't a particularly a fast run up the hill the speeds

06:14were a little bit uh a little bit low because yeah because of the gradients and so um I don't think

06:18that me aerodynamics um would have really um came into it I didn't have that like ticking over sensation

06:23at all like yeah you do on the flat and so yeah really it's um mostly the weight differences I

06:28hear about making the differences. Okay so put me out of my misery what was the difference between

06:33the two wheel sets of the climb? So over about a six and a half minute climb the difference came down

06:38to about three to four seconds so really quite close and that was with the 303s uh the heavier wheel

06:45set uh turning in that faster time it was the 353 NSW which was just a little bit slower. And that is

06:51purely down to knowing how to pace the effort and knowing where to put the power down wasn't it?

06:54So again actually really we've come down to fine margins once again even though there's a large

06:59difference in weight which is obviously something that would get affected on a climb we've essentially

07:03landed in the same space where it's again very marginal but not a marginal price difference. Yeah

07:08definitely I mean when you think about a total system weight so I'm 68 kilos a bike you know is

07:12under 10 kilos what's 200 grams like in in that complex in that whole matrix? When it comes to the

07:18sensation like you you do feel uh the difference of those 200 grams but when it comes to the actual

07:23performance the times that you're putting in like it is a very very small difference I mean it's

07:27almost about the same as just taking your phone out of your pocket and throwing it to to the side

07:31sure and so um yeah when it's back to back and you're testing between the wheels the difference is

07:36something that you can feel but in terms of just how much higher up the Strava leaderboard you're going

07:41to go it's not so much is it? Yeah absolutely okay so putting the numbers to one side for a moment

07:47because it can be very easy to get bogged down in power numbers and times subjectively

07:52do these feel £2000 better? Well I think that comes down to how much £2000 really means to you

07:58I mean this wasn't a blind test at all but I did feel a difference with the with the lighter wheel

08:02set I mean that 200 grams difference yeah it's still it's the kind of difference that you do notice

08:07even if it doesn't uh turn around uh much faster time and so I think that um yeah there's kind of two

08:12reasons uh to be going for the uh 353 NSW's like one is uh you're like racing at the very pinnacle

08:18and those milliseconds are exactly what counts and you're not going to sacrifice anything um anywhere

08:23and second is if you have that money to spare and you do want that feeling and you think that feeling

08:28is worth um yeah £2000 to you then yeah by all means go ahead uh for me personally I think that

08:34when it comes to choosing between the wheels I'd go for the 303S's the difference isn't so great and

08:40um I feel like it just makes that bit more monetary sense doesn't it it does indeed so there we have

08:45it that's our car park test wrapped up and really these tests were devised so that we could really

08:50see how they would perform in the real world and I think between these two it's very clear to see

08:54that it's very fine margins and when the variables aren't in your favour clearly a wheel set which is

09:00a lot more expensive may not perform as you might want it to so let us know your thoughts down in the

09:05comments let us know which ones you would go for if you enjoyed the video drop it a like subscribe

09:09to the channel for more content and we will see you again very soon

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