Zipp 202 NSW wheel review: Lively, light, but ever so expensive for what’s on the table

Light climbing wheels aren’t dead, but they’re certainly in a hospital bed, on a drip, and the immediate family has been told to come and visit. In the last decade, an ever-increasing focus on aerodynamics has seen the shallow wheel go from something approximating the default to a much more specialist option when considering the best road bike wheels, for those wanting to prioritise weight over all else.

Even lightweight bikes like the Scott Addict RC Ultimate are coming equipped with mid-depth wheels, as are all-rounders. It seemed a little against the run of play, then, when Zipp came out with a brand new 202 NSW wheelset earlier this year.

I’ve been using them in a range of really quite hilly environments, as is befitting. Full alpine ascents were scaled, as well as the savage and relentless Cornish coastal roads back at home, mostly aboard the new Cannondale SuperSix Evo, but also aboard the new Cannondale CAAD14 to try and invigorate what is quite a stolid machine as stock. They’re good wheels, but given their quite enormous price tag and some quite lacklustre constituent parts, I can’t really get on board with them with my consumer advice head on.

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Design and aesthetics

If you’ve been riding a while, you probably think of shallow tubs when you see the ‘202’ number. While Hunt has produced lightweight tubular wheels in recent years, these are very much modern in terms of their tyre setup: tubeless, and as with Zipp's other options, hookless.

Hookless may not be the most popular thing in the world at the present moment. But the 23mm internal width should mean slightly enhanced compatibility with narrower (read: lighter) tyres than more progressive widths, but it does feel a touch backwards-looking in this day and age when 25mm internal is becoming something approaching the norm.

One thing I do like is that the maximum pressures for a range of widths are printed on the sidewall, so no annoying googling in the garage before the ride. There isn’t, however, a list of approved tyres as with so many other Zipp wheels as yet; I mounted up a set of 30mm Continental GP5000 S TRs (living to tell the tale) and set off into the mountains.

The wheelset comes in at 1,090g, though Zipp does state that this is the 90th percentile weight and that most sets will come in under this weight. On my scales, the pair came in at 1,050g, which is certainly light, but it’s not crazy light, as I’ll get into shortly. Part of this is down to the slightly odd decision to use metal, j-bend spokes which tip the scales at 3.3g each.

While it’s true that not every high-performance wheel uses carbon spokes, they’re definitely the norm on wheelsets that retail for just under £3.400/$4,200/€3,800 as these do. Each of the spokes is in the region of a gram heavier than a carbon counterpart, so for a grand total of 40 spokes (20 front, 20 rear), that’s 40g left on the table, and would have got my wheelset 10g under the kilo mark. Using carbon spokes also normally allows you to reduce the spoke count, which would further reduce the weight.

While we’re on the subject of spokes, Zipp is continuing to use J-bend instead of straight pull. This means the hub flange in general needs to be larger, which creates a slightly heavier hub, but also means a wider angle for the spokes to diverge, as well as a shorter distance for them to traverse, which could have improvements in stiffness.

Speaking to Bristol’s premier wheel guru, Rob Borek, it transpires many brands have switched to straight pull because it makes the hubs cheaper to produce in mass quantities as you need less material, but it also means you can lace them more easily with machines. I don’t personally think there’s any great issue with J-bend or with straight pull spokes. If the wheels are decent and fit your needs and budget, choosing to not go with them because the spokes aren’t straight is quite mad, and at least here you’ll have no worries about non-captive spokes ejecting from the hub under hard impacts.

Inside the hubs there are ceramic bearings as standard, along with a 6-pawl ratchet offering up 66 points of engagement, which for road cycling is plenty, given instant reactivity isn’t nearly so crucial as it is in the world of techy MTB. Mirroring the spokes, the use of pawls rather than a star ratchet feels a little out of keeping with the premium price of these, though it must be said I never had any issues with the engagement itself, and they are mercifully a lot quieter than the alternative, which is bliss when sending down long descents.

Aesthetics is a hard one to call on what is ultimately a pair of black circles, as most wheels are. I do quite like the graphics, which comprise a series of well-placed dash fades that make me think of 1980’s motifs in greyscale. The hubs, though, don't have that same premium aesthetic from a visual standpoint, but I think the most egregious thing is the silver nipples, which cheapen things significantly. There’s nothing different to black ones in terms of performance, really, but they just look out of place on a wheelset at this price.

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Performance

I gave the Zipp 202s the best possible start in life with four days in the French Alps after the Dauphiné, including tackling the Col de Sarenne and Alpe d’Huez, plus several white-knuckle descents down the latter to really test their chops. They are, it must be said, an extremely pleasant set of wheels to ride, mounted up to a suitable machine; in my case the new Cannondale SuperSix Evo.

I didn’t have any issues mounting the tyres to the hookless rims. I am personally not overly enamoured with hookless rims for the road, but I do applaud Zipp for at least putting the maximum pressures on the sidewalls to stop me absent-mindedly causing an explosion in the office basement. Both a 28c Specialized Rapidair set and then a set of GP5000s went on with just a track pump (I managed to shred the former set instantly on some comically large shards of glass, it seems), and neither set lost more air than would be expected between rides.

The low weight is a big plus, and whether it was alpine climbs or the relentless, steep ramps on a trip down to Cornwall to raid the coastal roads, I was glad of the low mass. They certainly have that immediacy that is a function of both the weight and the stiffness. They never felt harsh, though. The 30mm rubber likely helps in this regard, but compared to some wheels, especially deeper options, they’re really quite mellow to ride over subpar tarmac, which the UK has in abundance for those of you unfamiliar with what can be charitably called our road network.

On descents is really where they came alive though. That lower rotating mass makes steering with precision a touch easier, and coupled with a reduced susceptibility to buffeting from the wind by virtue of just having a smaller side profile, they’re far less easily blown off course than many deeper options I’ve tried over the years. In hard cornering, whether full hairpins or fast open bends with more flow, they stood up extremely well, offering an extremely composed feel. I know in my head that the faster you go the more aerodynamics matters, and so on descents it’s perhaps even easier to argue the case for a slightly heavier but more aerodynamic wheelset, but I am a staunch believer in not living your riding life purely through the medium of a wattage chart; these feel brilliant on descents and you will have a lot of fun in a far greater range of conditions with them on versus something deep, in general terms.

They do, however, suffer against their deeper counterparts on the flat. The shallower depth will be less aero, but the lower mass also means at higher speeds you don’t have that flywheel feeling. They’re just a bit more of an effort to keep pushing on with on the flat, but you already expected that, didn’t you?

Ultimately, with mid-depth wheels reducing in weight and becoming the norm, the true shallow mountain wheel is now a very special tool, and with the price as it is for these wheels, it’s quite a hard sell if you don’t live somewhere especially mountainous.

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Value

The Zipp 202 NSW wheels are really quite eye-wateringly expensive at £3.400/$4,200/€3,800, and I can’t help but feel like Zipp could have done more with these. They’re light, but not as light as some hyperlight options. To make life easier for you, I’ve graphed up a few key lightweight wheelsets, plotting both their quoted weight and their RRP, and these come out amongst the heaviest and the most expensive, which makes them quite a hard sell for a reentry into the lightweight specialised wheel market.

The spokes probably should be carbon at this price and with weight in mind, but make the nipples black to make them look more premium or make them internal to improve the aero package. Give us a new lighter hub just for these or something, maybe?

Verdict

If you live in Chamonix, Bern, Steamboat Springs, or Perranporth and you want a decent set of wheels for up hill and down dale, then these are good, and you will have a good time, especially if you prioritise handling, but you’re going to get more for your money elsewhere. And if your rides don’t look like a Toblerone every time you saddle up, then being realistic these are an awful lot of cash for a wheel that is not going to be ideally suited to your needs.

‘But I’m doing the Marmotte next year and need a wheelset for that!’ I hear you cry. If you’ve got the cash, then fill your boots, but if this is going to be your only wheelset, then I’d suggest going for something more general.