I've seen this problem talked about just one time somewhere in forums, but that's it. So i had this problem from the beggining of having zipp wheels. I had 303 firecrests on my gravel/road bike always with 40-45 tyres. Bought them used and didn't saw that there was a dent/bulge on the front wheel near the nipple hole. Saw it after a couple of hundred miles and i was devastated… At that time firecrest front wheel was like 700-800 euros so that was no go for my budget. Kept riding the wheel until 2 years later it gave up. The warranty somehow changed the wheel for me, been riding them till this day. The rear wheel is also starting to pull the nipples from the holes but it's not any where near what was with the front wheel. And now decided to go with zipp 303 xplr S. And the funny thing is. When you touch with your fingers around the nipples you can feel a little bulges already. Keep in mind, these are brand new wheels no miles ridden. Am i the only one here having this problem or i'm over reacting and this is normal? I know i have a lifetime warranty on these but this view of cracked wheel is haunting me from that day and now i'm scared that it will fail again like the firecrests. The last photo is the new xplr S
by InformationSimple454
2 Comments
I had the 303 Firecrest for several thousand of km and the only issued that I had was with the hub that is kinda bad given the price of the wheels. I used them on a gravel bike and I abused them pretty hard. I never had any issues at all with the rims, not even loose spokes or untrued rims.
The problem that you had looks like the spoke was somehow pulling the rim towards the center?
Original owner has a lifetime warranty, they’ve been very easy for my shop to work with in the US.