Your choice of wheelset influences your Zwift speed much more than your choice of bike frame. And Zwift’s recent release of the Drop Shop has given us access to a pile of new wheelsets: 26 in total!
The big question for racers is: which wheels are the best?
We’ve been hard at work in our lab testing wheels and frames, and this is the first of a series of posts giving you some solid, data-driven answers.
*First, a Disclaimer
The “which wheel is fastest” question isn’t as easy to answer as you might think. You see, each wheelset has unique weight and aerodynamic (CdA) values, making them perform in ways that mirror outdoor physics. Some wheels perform better on climbs, while others perform better on the flats. Differences between wheelsets will also be magnified or minimized by your own power levels, drafting abilities, and more.
Your best Zwift wheelset, more than ever, depends on your specific situation.
About the Results
Below you will find the five fastest wheelsets in game for flat and mixed courses. “Flat and mixed” covers most routes on Zwift, with the exception of anything including major climbs like Alpe du Zwift, the Epic KOM, or Innsbruck’s KOM. This isn’t an exact science, but we’re pretty confident in our findings thus far.
This list is based on our recent speed tests using the Volcano Climb route which includes plenty of mostly flat terrain plus an 8-minute, 3% climb that isn’t too steep. Basically, this course nicely mirrors a lot of Zwift courses, so the results we see here should apply to many other courses as well.
Your Winners
#1: Zipp 858/Super9
1,508,800 Drops to purchase, must be Level 45+
Released with the Fuego Flats expansion, this wheelset just barely edges out the 808/Super 9 below. And how about those colors?
#2: Zipp 808/Super9
1,075,700 Drops to purchase, must be Level 35+
The original disc wheelset. Beta users got it, then Zwift finally made it available a few years later to everyone. This is the fastest wheelset out there… but also one of the heaviest, so don’t use it for long climbs.
#3: Zipp 858
312,400 Drops to purchase, must be Level 37+
The innovative sawtooth design of this wheel and the 454 is definitely eye-catching, and at least in game it makes for some nice speeds. Still a pretty heavy wheel though, so keep this one for the flat and mixed races, especially if you can’t score the Zipp 808/Super9 for some reason.
#4 & #5: ENVE SES 7.8 and 8.9
7.8: 205,900 Drops to purchase, must be Level 39+
8.9: 205,900 Drops to purchase, must be Level 31+
ENVE deepest dishes are nice and zippy. The deeper the dish, the faster and heavier they are.
The 8.9 is the deepest-dish ENVE in game, and it’s faster than the ENVE SES 7.8 on flats. But it’s also heavy enough that it is slower than the 7.8 even on shorter, shallower climbs like the Volcano KOM. In the end, at least on our test laps of Volcano Flat, these two wheelsets turned in exactly the same times.
#6: Zipp 808
177,600 Drops to purchase, must be Level 13+
Formerly the best all-around wheelset, the 808’s have slipped down a few notches with the arrival of the newcomers above. It is the easiest wheelset to attain on this list, though, so you may want to pick it up if you don’t have the Drops or ability to score the Zipp 808/Super9.
What’s the Time Gap?
The 6 wheelsets above are separated by only 5 seconds on a ~35 minute lap of the Volcano Climb route at 300 watts with a 75kg rider. That’s a slim margin–one that wouldn’t even be noticeable in the midst of a race that involves drafting, accelerations, etc.
The next fastest wheelset, the Zipp 454, is 4 seconds behind the slowest wheel on this list. So the wheelsets above are truly in a group by themselves when it comes to speed on flat/mixed courses.
About the Tron
This is what everyone’s asking: is the Zwift Concept 1 (Tron) still the fastest bike?
So far it looks like the Tron bike is still the fastest on flat/mixed courses, but only by the slimmest of margins. It was only 1 second faster on a lap of Volcano Climb than the runners up! More on this in future posts, but suffice it to say this is such a small margin that we’re hoping to see a lot of non-Tron bikes in races. Variety is the spice of life!
Coming Soon: Climbing
Watch for an upcoming post discussing the best wheels for extended and steeper climbs… it’s a completely different list than what you see above. We’re just finishing up our tests now!
Share Your Thoughts
We hope all you Zwifting fanatics found this post useful. Got questions or comments? Post below!
Thanks man !
Sounds like the Tron bike is less of a “value” than in the past, too bad! Its a real goal to earn one, you would have thought Zwift would have place a better value upon earning it, than a measly 1sec advatange.
Well, don’t make any major conclusions yet… we still have our climbing tests to do!
But I actually like the Tron bike not being way faster than everything else. It means races won’t be completely full of Tron bikes. I like variety.
Thanks Eric for the info, being more of light weight climber myself looking forward to your next tests on steeper climbs, still love my Tron Bike like slot of Zwifters .
If youve got the time. Looking forward to seeing if theres a difference between the many different TT bikes now available to ride/race (with the super9 of course!)
If you look at the spreadsheet you can see the cervelo p5x is the fastest of the TT bikes, by like 25 seconds I think.
Actually tied with the Shiv disc. Post coming on these soon!
You have a link to the aforementioned spreadsheet?
Oops, sorry, it’s linked in this article https://zwiftinsider.com/fastest-bike-alpe-du-zwift/
Look for the 2019 tests.
Speadsheet link https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_dvNbBEKAztJwjX-2CDdWmVSR4jP92o-eiNCB7hl5IY/
And for those not yet level 45 Specialized Shiv Disc.
Eric, you rock!
What about the Meilenstein Lightweight set ?
Sucks for flats, great for climbs. More info in an upcoming post.
Thanks Eric, I’m going to leave some of my Drops to you in my estate to use for future purchases for research.
For science!
Best on the Alp
Thank you for the insightful information Eric Schlange! Question for you, with regards to wheel aerodynamics in Zwift, does the aero effectiveness of wheels/bikes go away or greatly diminish while in the blob (group draft), or do you still get this advantage while in the draft?
Still get the advantage. Not sure how much things change, since testing draft effects is tough without a whole pile of test rigs…
Do you have any idea why the Disc was only available for a day?
Jerak: I think they “screwed up” and it wasn’t meant to be released. IMHO they should admit their mistake and put the 808/Super9 Disc back in the shop for fairness sake.
I normally cruise around 140-150 watts (2-2.2 w/kg), nowhere near the 300 these tests are done at. I know you can’t be sure without testing, but do you think the same wheels would be fastest for me, or would lighter be more important at that sort of power?
Thanks!
It’s a great question. The faster you go, the more being aero matters. On flat/mixed stuff aero is king, so even at your lower power numbers I would be these would be the fastest wheels. On climbs, though, the lower your power is (and hence the slower your speed) the more weight will matter and the less aero will.
We should probably do additional tests at lower power. Lots of tests to do!
Thank you, Eric! Love your work! Do you expect to see a large presence of 808/Super9 on Zwift racing? Since we don’t see disc wheels in standard, IRL road racing (at least I don’t), should we expect to see this setup in zwift racing? They just seems like a TT setup to me.
I think we’ll see a lot of the 808/Super9 in game, yeah. Partly because it’s still kind of “exclusive” because of how Zwift has pulled it from the Drop Shop, and also because it’s the fastest in-game.
But it’s heavy! So you won’t see it on longer climb races…
Is the shallower SES 7.8 still faster than the 808 set?
Looks like either the ENVE SES 7.8 or 8.9 might be the best “all-rounder” wheelset for races and courses with a couple of climbs in them (such as London Loop x 2 laps or Watopia Hilly course races).
I just checked and I’m only 400 metres of climbing away from unlocking the Tron!
Yes, but just barely faster (1 second, which is really Strava’s margin for error anyway).
Where do you think the Lightweight Meilenstein fit into all of this?
They’re some of the least aero wheels in game, but they’re the fastest on climbs. See data https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_dvNbBEKAztJwjX-2CDdWmVSR4jP92o-eiNCB7hl5IY/edit#gid=1812742034
as always Eric, your dedication to Zwiftscience is exemplary and greatly appreciated!
I’m a bit confused about your comments concerning the Tron bike though.
You said it was still the fastest in the game, but it looks like there are over a dozen bikes that are faster.
Or are you saying the fastest ‘non-TT’ type bike? So it’s 1 second faster than the SWorks Venge or Cervelo S5?
Fastest non-TT bike, yes. TT is a whole different category in my book.
(And spoiler alert: Tron isn’t fastest up the Alpe!)
Hi, Eric! Thanks for your science!
Can I suggest you to make sprint testing for wheels and frames?
Why am I interested in sprint testing? I am 3.72 W/kg rider and I use Emonda on any terrain because it’s the lightest option. I found out that going aero doesn’t make much sense on flat races because of drafting. My motivation is that I never get dropped on flats even by A-riders but struggle to hold on with top B-riders on climbs. So I think it makes sense to maximize climbing ability. So I really want to know how much aero matters on finish-line sprint.
Correct me if it’s a bad strategy 🙂
It’s a cool idea. I’d have to figure out how to test it in a repeatable, accurate way. I’ll give it a think!
Hi Eric,
thanks for the hard work you put in your studies. I really enjoy browsing through the Speed-Sheets.
Totally exited to see we might have some serious new climbing bikes! The Zwift Safety is stunning!
For a climbing setup that is not too shabby on the way to the climb I consider the new Specialized Tarmac Pro with the ENVE SES 3.4 or the Zipp 454. However the Zipp 454 are missing in the wheel-comparison in the Alpe-Sheet.
Since I am really curious about how they do on the climb I hope it is not too brash to ask if you could add them to the list.
Yeah, not sure why the 454 isn’t in the list yet. We’ll get that tested very soon.
Send like the disc has been updated for weight. Would that make any difference to your tests? Great work by the way… You’ve stopped me spending my food until you’re finished!
Our test numbers are accurate for the disc. It’s fast, but heavy!
How about the Zwift TT bike? I didn’t see it in the list with the other TT’s. Just the Zwift Aero frame.
It’s included. 21 seconds slower than the Cervelo P5x on the Volcano Full Lap.
Soo, Speci Allez Sprint with 808 for flat/mixed and Trek Emonda with Meilenstein for the Alpe and other long climbs. Thx!
What’s the fastest bike in the sprint? Is the C5 with the disc much quicker than the Tron in say a 700w sprint?
high wattage = high aero. That’s a good question, my guess is that there are several bikes faster than the Tron in high wattage sprints
The Super9 Disc wheel is NOT available at the drop shop on iOS any more. Just tested it with my iPad. 🙁
They do have 4 Stars for aero but only one or two for weight. The Zipp 454 have 4 stars for aero and 3 for weight but were not included in the test. Any hope of having them tested? They look like they could be a winner in the all-around category.
The 454s are in the spreadsheet, they came in just behind the ones listed here in the top 5.
Latest update has returned the 808/super9 disc to general availability. Level 35 unlock though (was level 13 before according to this article). And has introduced 858/super9 disc, level 45 unlock. Could this be the new king of wheelsets??
It looks like Super 9/808 are back (for iOS and Mac at least) but they are level 35+ and over 1,000,000 drops
FYI: updated this post to include the 855/Super9 disc wheelset.
It would be interesting to have the fastest wheels and fastest bikes for sprint. The venge s-works seems to be one one the best bike for sprint. Paired up with the 808/disk wheel it should be good but since these wheels are the heaviest, it might not be the best for sprints??