Ok, so you got a Powertap, and now you’re addicted to it. You feel naked if you can’t download after a ride. Pretty soon you start wishing you had data from races as well, but you don’t want to sacrifice performance. The logical next step in your descent into madness is to upgrade the rim.

The Zipp 360 rim (of their 404 wheels) is a good choice for this upgrade. It’s been beefed up to handle cyclocross, so it should be able to double as a training wheel (Schmalz has been abusing a set of 404’s all year, and they’ve held up fine). At 400 grams, it’s no lighter than my Sun tubie rim it’ll replace, but it’s far more aero. If you’re running something like an Open Pro clincher, you can drop weight AND drag. Of course, you could go crazy and choose the low profile 250 or 285 and save even more weight.

The Master
I’ve built 20-30 wheels, with varying degrees of success. I would love to become a master wheelbuilder, but how many wheels can one person build for himself? Building up a Zipp wheel would be like climbing Mt. Olympus for wheel geeks, so of course I had to give it a go.

@##=#<1,r>@##=#Zipp has an excellent faq on building with their rims, but to be safe I called Rich Sawiris of Wheelbuilder.com for more advice. Rich builds a ton of wheels with Zipp rims, and has an incredibly stringent QC process. He was very generous with Zipp-specific tips:

*Zipp rims will fail if over tensioned. You want to shoot for 90-100 Kg, and increase it uniformly and gradually.

*Like many other builders, Rich advocates tensioning only the drive side spokes first, then centering the rim with the non drive spokes, which will bring the drive side spokes up to proper tension.

*You shouldn’t stress relieve a Zipp build by leaning on the rim. Just squeeze adjacent spokes.

*Rich recommends Wheelsmith Spoke Prep for the spokes. And you need to grease the shoulders of the nipples so they can spin freely against the rim.

*Perfectly even tension is the key to a long lasting wheel. Rich uses 4 different tension meters, and keeps a record of the tension of every spoke of every wheel he builds. Luckily, the $60 Park tension meter I own (which I chose because it was affordable) is one he likes.

*Rich prefers Sapim CX-Rays. I’d avoided these spokes because I mistakenly thought I had to file the hub to accommodate the bladed section, but Rich told me that they’re only 2.3 mm across and fit without filing. I ordered the spokes from Rich, secure in the knowledge that with his experience, the lengths would be perfect.

The Build
@##=#<2,L>@##=#20 minutes on the phone with Rich and I started to wonder what I’d gotten myself into. I’ve never been that rigorous with maintaining even tension. As for max tension, I’ve used the ‘musical pitch’ technique, as well as the ‘go too far and back off a bit’ technique, neither of which would work here.

With care, the process wasn’t as daunting as I imagined. Lacing a deep dish rim is more painstaking, but once I got in a groove it was fine. I ramped up the tension more slowly than usual, tightening each drive side spoke a tiny amount each time so as not to put any asymmetrical stress on the rim. Once I got the drive side up to 80 Kg I started centering the rim with the non drive spokes. I had to back off the drive side spokes a bit as the rim approached the center (I should’ve started with 60 Kg), but eventually I had it at 100 Kg. It’s a bit difficult to make the rim radially and laterally true AND have even spoke tension, but I got pretty close. The cool thing about using bladed spokes is that you know there’s no windup in the spokes, so there’s no chance of them unwinding and loosening over time. Two hours later I had built my most evenly tensioned wheel, with all drive side spokes at 95-100 Kg.

Time for Hate
As always, it’s the price. Zipp rims ain’t cheap, and Sapim’s cost more than DT’s. You’ll end up with a tubie training wheel, which is slightly less convenient than a clincher. But cheaper tubie tires can be found, and they flat less than clinchers. You’ll need a tension meter, a truing stand, and a dish stick for the build. If you’re a hopeless geek like me you’ll buy all this stuff, but if you’re a resident of planet sensible you’ll probably just give Rich a call and have him build it for you. But then you’ll never have the opportunity to say, “There’s twenty thousand dollars of dental work in my mouth because I decided to build my own bicycle wheels. Did I say something funny?”

So where does that leave us?
So a mere mortal can build a wheel with a Zipp rim after all. Still, it’s a long ways from my first wheels, where I checked the tension by plucking the spokes with a pick and checking the pitch against a guitar. If this is something you want to attempt by all means go ahead, but make sure you have all the right tools, and take your time. The last thing you want to do is crack that beautiful rim.

The inaugural ride went well, without a single ping or creak. That’s an indication that the spoke heads were well nestled into the flange, and that there was no spoke windup coming undone. I deliberately hit a few extra bumps, and the wheel stayed nice and true. Since I didn’t drop any weight, it didn’t feel any snappier, but at times I did feel like the aero rim put me in one harder gear than usual.

The 360/PT combo is lighter and faster than a typical PT training setup, and it leaves you with one less excuse while training or racing. You’ll be able to hang with stronger riders while you train, and your TT workouts will more closely match your race day times. And let’s face it, it’s just f’in gorgeous. But if you ever find yourself ogling the sensual lines of a spoke, you’re beyond help.

Rich will sell you everything you need to do this – rims, spokes, hubs. Black spokes and colored nipples are available, too. The rims are also available at Competitve Cyclist.