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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. In a test like this there are plenty of variables we need to keep a lid on
01:42so we've used the same ties, sealink, cassettes and rotors across both wheel sets. There are obviously
01:47some variables that we can't have any control of those being the wind, the traffic and how Stefan
01:52paces his effort so this is very much a rough round the edges real world test. So a little more
01:57information about those wheels. The set that cost £1,050 are the Zipp 303S's and the ones coming
02:03at £3,200 are the Zipp 353 NSW's. The difference in weight is significantly closer than that of the price
02:09differential with just 236 grams separating the two wheel sets. The actual weights with tape come in at
02:151308 grams for the 353s and 1544 grams for the 303S's. The rim profiles are incredibly different
02:23between the two wheel sets. Although both are optimised around 28mm tyres, the NSW's come with
02:28an internal rim width of 25mm compared to 23mm on the 303S's. These are both on the wide side for
02:35road wheels but the NSW's are significantly so. Together with the external rim width of 30mm the tyres
02:42make a notably smoother and straighter transition to the rims of the NSW's. This has been proved to
02:47be more aero in the wind tunnel. That narrower internal width on the 303S's gives the tyres
02:52more of a mushroom profile. Another distinctive element of the 353 NSW's can be seen along the
02:57sides of the rims. Small dimples are moulded in similar to that of a golf ball which is supposed to
03:02aid efficiency. The fact that a number of them are partially filled by the stick-on logos may mitigate
03:06their effectiveness. Also the distinctive undulation of the 353 NSW wheels has been done largely to
03:13improve the stability and crosswinds. Okay 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 that kind of thing but
03:31there's still some differences in the sensation between them. I think that with the 353 NSW's it was
03:36mainly flat but there were some rises and on those rises it did feel like that a little bit more
03:41responsive sort of when pressing on the pedals. And when it came to ticking along the flat,
03:46I mean like this isn't a double blind trial like 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
03:57flat. They felt fast, it felt really good and ticking over and so yeah the feeling of the 353 NSW's was
04:03really quite good but then out there that 303s weren't bad at all either. I guess it's that thing
04:08of okay well do they feel £2,000 better and that's a trickier question to answer. So then in power
04:13numbers were you able to match a normalised power? Well in terms of the normalised 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 coming in slightly slower than the 303s and I can tell you the reason the traffic
04:38between the guns it was yeah it was quite different and unfavourably in terms of the 353 NSW's and
04:44so I think that's what 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
04:53that you know the 303s's are slow wheels it's just that actually the difference between them wasn't
04:59great enough to overcome the variable the uncontrollable variable of traffic. Yeah exactly pretty much.
05:05Okay 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 did you notice a difference between the weight because obviously these are 275 grams
05:41lighter did you feel that? So they're both pretty good wheels I mean it's not like the 303s's were
05:48feeling particularly heavy they're still around about that 1500 gram mark which is a pretty nice weight
05:53for a wheel set the 353 NSW's are that a little bit lighter and yeah on the steepest gradients
06:00they do feel that a little bit more responsive like you get that sensation through the pedals as
06:03you're pressing the cranks. And then were there any other kind of benefits of those wheels that you
06:08felt? No I mean it wasn't a particularly a fast run up the hill the speeds were a little bit a little
06:15bit low because yeah because of the gradients and so I don't think the aerodynamics would have really
06:21come into it I didn't have that like ticking over sensation at all like yeah you do on the flat
06:25and so yeah really it's mostly the weight differences that I hear about making the differences.
06:30Okay so put me out of my misery what was the difference between the two wheel sets of the climb?
06:35So over about a six and a half minute climb the difference came down to about three to four seconds
06:40so really quite close and that was with the 303s the heavier wheel set turning in that faster time
06:47it was the 353 NSW which was just a little bit slower.
06:50And that is purely down to knowing how to pace the effort and knowing where to put the power down
06:54wasn't it? So again actually really we've come down to fine margins once again even though there's a
06:59large difference in weight which is obviously something that would get affected on a climb
07:02we've essentially landed in the same space where it's again very marginal but not a marginal price
07:07difference. Yeah definitely I mean when you think about a total system weight so I'm 68 kilos
07:12a bike you know under 10 kilos what's 200 grams like in in that complex in that whole matrix? When it comes to
07:18the sensation like you you do feel 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 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 £2,000 better? Well I think that comes down to how much £2,000 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 set
08:03I mean that 200 grams difference yeah it's still it's the kind of difference that you do notice even if
08:07it doesn't turn around much faster time and so I think that yeah there's kind of two reasons to
08:13be going for the 353 NSW like one is you're like racing at the very pinnacle and those milliseconds are
08:19exactly what counts and you're not going to sacrifice anything anywhere and second is if you have that
08:25money to spare and you do want that feeling and you think that feeling is worth £2,000 to you then yeah
08:31by all means go ahead for me personally I think that when it comes to choosing between the wheels I'd go for
08:36the 303S's the difference isn't so great and I feel like it just makes that bit more monetary sense
08:42doesn't it? It does indeed so there we have it that's our car park test wrapped up and really
08:48these tests were devised so that we could really see how they would perform in the real world and
08:52I think between these two it's very clear to see that it's very fine margins and when the variables
08:58aren't in your favour clearly a wheel set which is a lot more expensive may not perform as you might
09:02want it to so let us know your thoughts down in the comments let us know which ones you would go for
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09:11you again very soon