Zipp’s revamped hookless carbon 202 NSW wheelset weighs in at a claimed 1,090g (including valves and tapes). That's impressively light for a wheelset that uses standard hubs and J-bend stainless steel spokes.
The updated 202 NSW has a new series of carbon specifications, with Zipp claiming it's the most complex rim it has ever built. The rims are 35mm deep with a 23mm internal width.
With ceramic bearings as standard and backed by a full lifetime warranty, the 202 NSW is a pure road wheelset optimised for 28-32mm tyres.
A brief history of the 202
Back when rim brakes ruled the world, Zipp’s 202 was the Indianapolis-based wheel builder's climbing special.
The low-profile rim was at odds with the brand's aero approach, but the low weight found favour with riders and racers of the time. With a weight of 1,375g a pair, the 202 Firecrest was one of the lightest production wheelsets around.
The 202 continued into the disc-brake era, but was discontinued in 2018 when Zipp switched to wider, tubeless-specific rim profiles. The previous-generation 202 NSW tipped the scales at 1,460g including tapes and valves.
The new 202 NSW not only grows the rim to 35mm (over the previous 32mm), it also lowers the weight significantly to a claimed 1,090g. That's even more impressive considering Zipp has stuck to using J-bend spokes and standard hubs, and continued to use stainless-steel spokes while its competitors have switched to carbon to make weight savings.
In comparison, Cadex’s Max 40 carbon-spoke wheelset weighs in at 1,249g with a 40mm rim depth. Lightweight’s Obermayer Evo, with its proprietary carbon construction, weighs 1,230g. Newmen’s Streem wheels, with carbon spokes and proprietary aero valves, weigh 1,088.3g. The similarly priced Schmolke TLOs come with carbon spokes and, at 977g, are the lightest wheels I’ve tested with a generous system weight limit.
202 NSW details
The ZR1 SL hubset that arrived with the 353 NSW in 2025 is also put to use here. The 304g-a-pair hubs are designed for standard J-bend spokes, here with a spoke count of 20 front and rear. The SL hubs use a GRW ceramic bearing for longevity and light weight.
The freehub remains the fast-engaging 66-point design.
The wheels use Alpina Hyperlite stainless spokes. I asked Zipp’s lead design engineer for the 202 project, Ben Waite, why the brand continued with metal spokes when its rivals are using carbon to reduce weight.
Waite explained: “We’ve been testing and evaluating carbon spokes for quite a while, and we can see plenty of advantages with them. We do still have some reservations around the material as a choice for spokes from our testing and research. That and we’ve found we can achieve our longevity, impact strength, and lightweight goals with steel spokes.”
It’s the rim where the biggest leaps in tech are found with the 202 NSW. A new recipe for the carbon mix blends five different types of carbon and a complex layup with more than 50 individual sections per rim.
Biomimetic laminate
Zipp call the new construction ‘Biomimetic laminate’. The blend of mixed-modulus carbon puts the stiffest carbon at the spoke bed, and the toughest at the tyre bed. Zipp claims this mimics the function of a tendon, hence the ‘Biomimetic’ moniker.
The outer skin of the rim uses a form of carbon that’s both strong and durable to withstand impacts. The inner diameter of the rim uses high-modulus fibres to maintain spoke tension under riding loads.
The result is a wheelset with a sub 1,100g weight, yet it still comes with both a lifetime unlimited warranty and a system weight limit of a very generous 115kg/235lb.
The 23mm internal width is optimised for tyres between 28mm and 32mm, meaning the 202 NSW joins Zipp’s 404/454 and 808/858 as a pure road wheelset, alongside the road/all-road/gravel-ready 303 range.
Zipp’s collaboration with Goodyear – the 29mm-wide Eagle F1 Z29 Aero tyre – looks to be the optimal choice for the 202 NSW, but any TSS (tubeless straight side) compatible road tyre will fit.
The 202NSWs come with a maximum pressure rating of 73psi/5.0 BAR, although Zipp says maximum pressure is tyre-width dependent.
Zipp 202 NSW pricing
The 202 NSW is available in Shimano HG or SRAM XDR freehub options, with the rear wheel priced at £1,875 / $2,300 / €2,100 and the front at £1,520 / $1,900 / €1,700.
