The 101 XPLR is Zipp's first purpose-built wheelset for gravel. This wheelset smooths out your ride thanks to Zipp MOTO technology. Learn all about this new gravel wheelset from Zipp wheel product manager Bastien Donzé. He takes us through the features, technology, and design approach of the 101 XPLR. He also provides a detailed look at the Zipp ZR1 hubset. So if you're into gravel or cycling technology, you'll love this episode.

What is the method behind Hagens Berman Axeon's long used slogan and hashtag #proveit? ZippCast sits down with Axeon Sports Director Jeff Louder to discover what life is like inside Axeon (pronounced like "action"), pro cycling's most successful U23 development team. Jeff discusses working with young riders and the challenges of running a cycling team competing worldwide on a limited budget. Jeff also looks back a bit on his racing career, and we ask Jeff to name his favorite set of Zipp wheels.

ZippCast catches up with American Alexis Ryan of Canyon-SRAM Racing to talk about her life as a pro cyclist. Her dog Smoke even joins us, though she is more interested in napping than cycling. We talked with Alexis while in Tennessee for the recent US Pro Road Championships. She breaks down cycling strategy and how a year away from competition during the pandemic rekindled her passion for pro cycling. Alexis also contrasts racing in America vs. Europe and reveals what makes a cyclist strategically savvy. She also tells us her favorite Zipp wheel. There's something for every cycling fan in this podcast. Photo by Thomas Maheux

ZippCast is back on the road! This episode comes to you from the recent U.S. Pro Road Championships in Knoxville, Tenn. Today we meet one of the newer members of the SRAM and Zipp team. Anna Greetis is crazy about gravel riding and wrenching on bikes. She learned her craft in bike shops and now is working with pro athletes. Anna is a race technician for SRAM Road Racing—that means she’s the main contact point between Zipp and our sponsored pro athletes in North America. Anna talks about her roots in cycling and how she views working on bikes as an unending intriguing puzzle.

It’s May in Indianapolis, and that means the buzz of IndyCars are in the air. The Zipp factory, once in Speedway right next to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is now a few miles north. But you can still hear the race cars here some days.

 

It’s something today’s guest notices when he walks into the Zipp office and factory. Simon Marshall is a Zipp manufacturing engineer who for years worked in motorsports. His experience illustrates the deep ties between Zipp and motorsports that go back to our founding in 1988 by a motorsports engineer, Leigh Sargent.

 

Simon, a native of England, worked as a chief car designer of Gil de Ferran’s Indianapolis victory in 2003 and Buddy Rice’s in 2004. He was also part of the highly innovative DeltaWing concept considered for Indy car. When he interviewed for his engineering job at Zipp, he noted just how tightly Zipp guarded its manufacturing methods. Once Marshall was on the inside of Zipp, he saw how processes had been established over many years and adapted to new products. He was used to motorsports, where a small group would create a chassis. At Zipp, because it’s a factory producing thousands of wheels instead of a few specialized cars, the process had to be broken down into manageable chunks.

Learn about Zipp’s 353 NSW Tubeless Disc-brake wheelset from two engineers who helped design it. We peppered Zipp design engineers John Leachman and Ben Waite with questions about the 353 NSW in this fun ZippCast conversation.

Zipp advanced development engineer Dave Morse joins ZippCast to explain Zipp's use of "hookless" tubeless rim design for wheels including the 303 S and 303 Firecrest. The hookless, also called tubeless straight side, design is a vital component of Zipp's Total System Efficiency approach to optimize wheels for great speed. Dave takes us through the basics of hookless, from how the tire stays on the wheel to how hookless effects rolling resistance. The show starts off with Zipp design engineer Mike Vittorio providing an overview of the differences between hookless, traditional clinchers, and tubular wheels in a response to an Ask Zipp question.

Alana Stewart loves talking about Zipp. In fact, as a consumer specialist for SRAM, that’s her job. We asked Alana for some of the most common general questions she gets from riders, and we go through each. We also chat with Alana about her love of cycling—something we like to ask almost all of our guests. We hope this is a fun and useful episode.

Learn more about the home of Zipp wheels. In this edition of ZippCast, we get an inside look at the Zipp factory with Roberts Graudins. Roberts is the high-energy Director of Operations for SRAM Indy, which includes the Zipp factory. Today’s Zipp factory is an 80,000 square foot modern manufacturing facility in Indianapolis, Indiana. Roberts gives an update on how Zipp is confronting production challenges during the pandemic. He also discusses the complex process of making Zipp’s wheel designs a reality, ready to be boxed up and shipped out worldwide. Roberts also talked about his long history with SRAM and his love of mountain biking. We close with Roberts talking about his favorite part of the workday — taking an early morning walk around the factory floor saying hi to everyone he sees.

Road bikes and everything around them have gone high tech. Your bike now may be connected to your smartphone, and most likely you at least record and upload your rides. Tire pressure, once monitored by pinching your tire with your thumb and forefinger, now is tweaked and analyzed. In this podcast, we asked Zipp advanced development engineer Dave Morse what bike tinkering means to him today. We start off learning how Dave’s quest for the ideal pre – and post – ride Cappuccino ended with him building his own espresso machine. We then discuss how cyclists of all kinds can benefit by having a tinkerer’s mindset when it comes to everything from Strava and GoPro cameras to using 3D printers. Dave also suggests lessons that can be learned by riding the same route again and again—something many of us may be doing as we’ve spent so much time at home in the past year. So, grab a coffee, sit back and relax, it’s time for ZippCast…