Zipp 404 Firecrest Tubeless Disc Rear Wheel

Zipp 404 Firecrest Tubeless Disc Rear Wheel is sold here as a single rear wheel, which makes sense for riders replacing a damaged wheel, building a mixed setup, or pairing it with a front wheel they already own. The 404 Firecrest name carries real weight in the Zipp lineup — it's been the brand's benchmark all-rounder aero wheel for years, and this tubeless-disc version sits below the NSW flagship in price while keeping nearly all of its performance.

At 58mm deep, the rim splits the difference between a shallow climbing wheel and a full-depth time trial disc, which is exactly why Zipp positions it for road racing, triathlon, gran fondos, and mixed-terrain riding rather than one narrow use case. The carbon rim is hookless with a symmetrical profile, a 23mm internal width, and a 28mm max external width — proportions built around modern wider tubeless tires rather than the narrow clinchers aero wheels were originally designed around. Zipp's ABLC Sawtooth dimpling pattern runs along the rim's sidewall to smooth airflow separation at speed, which is what keeps a wheel this deep from feeling twitchy when a crosswind hits on an exposed section of road.

Zipp frames all of this under what it calls Total System Efficiency — the idea that four things slow a rider down: wind resistance, rolling resistance, gravity, and vibration losses, and that a wheel should be tuned against all four rather than just aerodynamics. The hookless rim design plays into that directly. Beyond the aero benefit of a smoother tire-to-rim transition, hookless construction uses resin more efficiently during layup, which Zipp says produces a lighter, stronger rim than a hooked bead of the same weight. Tire compatibility runs from 28c to 35c tubeless tires, wide enough to run lower pressures for comfort and grip on rough pavement without stepping outside the wheel's design range.

The hub is Zipp's ZR1 DB, a German-engineered design built for a quicker response and improved seal durability, with 66 points of engagement for fast pickup when you're back on the pedals out of a corner or a draft. It uses a Center Lock rotor interface, ships with 12mm thru-axle end caps, and this rear-specific build is available with either an XDR driver body or a Shimano/SRAM HG11 body, so it isn't locked to one drivetrain brand (a Campagnolo driver body is available separately if needed). Zipp backs the wheel with a lifetime warranty.

Independent teardown weights put this rear wheel at right around 816 grams, which reflects the roughly 400-gram-per-set reduction Zipp made to this generation of the 404 Firecrest over the previous version — a meaningful drop for a wheel that isn't marketed as an ultralight climbing option. Max tire pressure is rated to 73 psi, and the wheel carries a combined rider-and-bike weight limit of 253 lbs (115 kg). For a rider who needs a rear wheel specifically — replacing one half of a pair, building a custom front/rear combination, or completing a wheelset around a front they already have — this is a well-proven place to land.