Zipp 303 NSW Carbon Clincher Tubeless Disc Brake Front Wheel

Ride away. Explore boundaries. Do so with speed, stability, and control. That’s the 303 NSW Carbon Clincher Tubeless Disc wheelset. Zipp’s 45mm rim depth proved ideal as a do-it-all wheels for cobbles, pavement, cyclocross, and gravel. Now add to that tubeless compatibility and options to run wider tires.

Without the constraints of rim brake caliper compatibility or brake-track requirements, our engineers were free to modify the NSW rim design to be disc-brake specific as well as to be more aerodynamically efficient and stable at the most common wind angles. For starters, the ABLC™ Sawtooth™ dimple design extends all the way to the rim’s edge. The result is greater AeroBalance™, our name for optimized aerodynamic efficiency and crosswind stability.

The 303 NSW Tubeless Disc-brake is optimized for wide tires to meet the performance needs of modern riders in search of low rolling resistance and high comfort. Additionally, our engineers carefully considered the rim-to-tire interface and how specific tire and rim widths affect aerodynamic performance. With an internal width of 21mm, the wheelset test fastest with a 28mm tire in the majority of wind angles.

Designed to be tubeless compatible, the 303 NSW Tubeless Disc brake wheels feature a rim bed made with internal ridges to lock the tire’s bead in place. A tubeless setup allows you to run lower tire pressure for more comfort while reducing the risk of pinch flats.

Cognition Disc Hubset

Every time a conventional hubset starts to coast, friction within the freehub ratchet mechanism works like a drum brake to slow the rider down. With the Cognition Disc-brake hubset’s Axial Clutch technology, we’ve reduced this drag by disengaging the ratchet mechanism when coasting. Our testing shows that the best traditional three-pawl hub designs have twice the rotating friction as our Axial Clutch equipped Cognition rear hub, and the most popular hubsets using a similar drive mechanism as Axial Clutch were found to produce four times the rotating friction.

All NSW rims are handmade in Indianapolis, where Zipp's engineering, manufacturing, and testing are conducted and includes "The Nest" advanced development lab where NSW was born.

Each Wheel Includes:

• Zipp Tangente Quick Release Skewer
• Zipp individual wheel bag
• Zipp Tubeless valve – factory installed
• Tubeless rim tape – factory installed
• Valve core removal tool
• Zipp Cognition thru-axle caps to fit 12x100, 15x100 and 12x142 dropouts
• Zipp Cognition oil – for rear hub service
• Freehub body spacer – 11 to 10 speed

ImPress™

We’ve employed Zipp’s ImPress™ graphics technology, which prints graphics directly on the wheel, to help allow the dimples to do what they were design to do – help control vortex shedding, the rate at which air sheds off the wheel. Managing this is crucial to stability. ImPress graphics also give NSW a distinctive stealthy look.

ABLC™ SawTooth™ Technology (Aerodynamic Boundary Layer Control)

Our new Sawtooth dimple design consists of 12 nodes that are specifically clocked to start aerodynamic shearing at a rate of 50hz at a rider speed of 20mph. Sawtooth accomplishes this by inducing small sheet vortices that shed at a low magnitude, but at a higher natural frequency, thus decreasing the laminar bubble effect on the aerodynamically shielded side of the rim’s profile to further reduce high yaw drag and improve crosswind stability.

Front Wheel Specifications:

• Weight: 720g
• Hub Used: Cognition Disc front
• Brake Interface: Center locking – lock ring not included
• Hub Width: 100mm
• Rim Depth: 45mm
• Max Width: 28.9mm
• Internal Width: 21mm
• Spokes: Sapim® CX-Ray® / J-bend
• Spoke Count: 24
• Spoke Pattern: 2 cross
• Spoke Length Drive: 264mm / J-bend
• Spoke Length Non-Drive: 266mm / J-bend
• Max Tire Pressure: 125psi
• Max Tire Pressure: 8.62bars
• Track Adaptable: No
• Dimpled Surface: Yes
• Nipples: Sapim® Secure Lock
• External Nipples: Yes
• Thru Axle Compatible: Yes
• Tubeless: Yes