Lightly used Zipp 303 Firecrest- should I?
 

Seller (reliable guy with a good reputation who sells lots of wheel sets...may be associated with a bike shop) says the wheelset only has ~200 miles. It could be a demo, I guess. The front hub has been upgraded by Zipp but the rear is the original 188 hub. He wants around $1,250.

What do you guys think about a 303 like this, and for this price? I'm looking for a light wheelset for my BMC SLR01 frame.

Sounds fair to me.

Fair, but not great. I see them for sale every now and then on craigslist for around $1,000.00, which probably means they actually sell for significantly less. Also, keep in mind that these wheels 'could' be as old as 2012. So be careful.

If I'm buying used and not getting a pretty good deal, I'm not very tempted. Thanks for the input. I think I'll pass on this one. If the 303 was tubeless-ready, I'd even spring for a new one. I like tubeless enough to where I don't want to spend $2,000-$3,000 for a new carbon wheelset (in that 35mm-45mm range I want) unless it is truly and technically tubeless-ready in the rim-brake version. The Enve 2.2 SES is but it is a bit shallow (I could live with that) but the reviews frequently point to some sort of flex that causes brake rub. The Bontrager Aeolus 3 is TLR but the braking is supposedly sub-par. Still worth investigating a bit more, I guess.

Make sure the hubs are upgraded. There has been a recall due them coming apart while riding. My rear hub brought me to an instant stop and then it wasn't very pretty. Andy

Thanks for all the advice. I'm going to pass on this. Ideally, the Zipp rims with CKs or DT240s would be nice but I can't afford that new just yet. I'll wait and watch for deals since I have several other bikes and in the winter, the nice road bikes see less use anyway. I'll figure it out. I was wanting something in that 40mm-45mm depth since all the other road bikes have shallower rims so these could be more aero. The Knight rims looks good with the 3mm brake track but I am not seeing many reviews on them. Will keep looking. Who knows...maybe Zipp or Enve will come up with a tubeless version of the 303 or 3.4 SES soon. I know...wishful thinking... :)

303 are great wheels. I have it in tubular. Great combo of light weight and aero, without going too deep and getting nudged by crosswinds. If you are patient you can get them lightly used on ebay/CL for under $1000


The ones from a few years back with radial drive side spokes weigh in a bit lighter than the current ones, at least comparing my set to the specs on their website. On the older ones the front hub was recalled due to flange ring, rear hubs were never recalled.

I have heard of many 188 rear hub problems but none of the 177, except maybe for lateral play. I don't know why they did not recall the rear 188s, since several "imploded" and locked up as Flying Foot Doc mentioned above. Not sure if the 177s have that lateral play. I'll watch for the newer ones on eBay. Another slightly related questions if you guys know- are the house-brand ENVE has any good? I'm just asking since I may also keep an eye out for used 3.4 SES wheelsets and jump on one if the price works out.

which wheelsets around the 35-45mm that are tubeless?

I'm mainly going to use it for racing.

The ones I know of are the Bontragers, NOX Composites, November Wheels, Kappius, and Boyd. I have the NOX A36D on my cross/winter bike but they have rim versions and also a new 35mm rim coming out soon. My NOX rims do tubeless fine. I have run them with narrow Schwalbe Pro One 23s and now have Bontrager CX0 33s on...holding air great, so the tubeless beadlock is at least decent. I have not tried the others.

Just be extra careful around 'used' Zipp wheels as there are a fair few counterfeits swirling around.