Quad Cycles is an authorized Zipp dealer, selling and servicing Zipp wheelsets and components for the greater Boston area.

Zipp is a manufacturing company located in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA and part of the SRAM group.

It’s not often that a company introduces a product line that clearly exceeds the performance offered by its competitors. Zipp's wheels have done it repeatedly. Zipp sets the gold standard for performance for good reason. At each rim depth Zipp offers, their wheels provide the greatest aerodynamic advantage on the market.

Zipp's story begins with Leigh Sargent, an automotive engineer working on racing cars in Indiana in 1988. According to the legend, one of Sargent's drivers, who was also a cyclist, came to Sargent's garage to show the aerodynamic disc wheel he'd just bought for a road bike. Sargent was amazed by the cyclist's wheel, but not in a good way; the wheel was made of a thick aluminum dish bonded to a conventional rim and hub, and it weighed over 3000 grams - more than a good pair of non-aero racing wheels then, and more than two pairs now. However, it gave Sargent an idea, and he started working with some Nomex honeycomb he had for another project, resulting in a wheel that weighed 1400 grams at the same strength and aerodynamic performance. A couple years later, he'd reduced the weight to 1150 grams, which is a competitive weight for disc wheels, even now (the Hed Jet Disc Black, a current high-end aero disc wheel, weighs 1210 grams).

Featured Product: 202 Firecrest

With increased wind tunnel testing and advances in carbon fiber pushing innovation throughout the industry, Zipp has taken its wheels to the bleeding edge of design, making wheelsets capable of cutting through the wind at all rim depths, whether on a flat course or over hills. The Zipp 202 Firecrest wheelset is one of the few wheelsets that fits both sorts of courses.

The 202s come in three configurations - tubular, clincher, and clincher with disc brake compatibility - and all three are between 1180 and 1530 grams as a pair. The low rim weight makes climbing easier than you've ever thought possible, and the ABLC rim dimpling reduces drag so well that the gold medalist in the men's triathlon at the Beijing Olympics chose 202s for his bike. Meanwhile, the hub is designed to take traditional road cassette sizes as well as mountain or cyclocross cassettes without re-dishing the wheel. If you're wondering whether a carbon wheel can take the abuse of unpaved riding surfaces, and therefore whether the versatility is really necessary, consider this: one rider who took fourth place at Paris-Roubaix, the Hell of the North, was on the lightest version of these wheels.

So if you want stability, acceleration, and durability, whether you're climbing Mt. Greylock in the west or riding along Revere Beach in the east, the Zipp 202 Firecrest wheels are for you.