This article first appeared on BikeRadar.
Zipp has announced its most radical wheel to date, the 454 NSW, and after its impressive reworking of the NSW firecrest shape we were wondering just how Zipp could improve things further.
Well the radical new shape of the 454 certainly shows that Zipp has been thinking way outside of the box. In fact it has been looking towards the sea.
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Taking inspiration from nature, Zipp has been researching biomimicry — an emerging science that imitates the models and systems found in nature to help provide solutions to complex engineering problems. An example given by Michael Hall, Zipp's chief advanced development engineer, would be trees being very much like a composite construction, with the wood and sap. Hall describes it as "very similar to a carbon wheel with resin and carbon fibre."
However, the design inspiration for the 454 comes from a rather unlikely source, the humpback whale.
The research for the wheel shape looked at how despite a whale's size it can swim at 23-24mph and turn in a five-foot radius swirling around to hunt. Hall says the humpback whale "basically has these Vortex generators on its fins that allows the water flow to stay attached, making it able to make these extreme manoeuvres."
- 1,525g total weight
- 690g front weight
- 835g rear weight
- 53/58mm wheel depth
- 27.8mm max width
- 26.4mm brake track width
- 17mm internal width
- 18 front spoke count
- 24 rear spoke count
- Sapim® secure-lock nipples
- Sapim® CX-Ray® spokes
- Cognition hubset
- ImPress graphics
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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