Is it safe to ride on cracked carbon rims (Zipp 404 Firecrest 2010 edition)? I've got a set of Zipp Firecrest 404 Tubulars (2010). I went over a pothole recently but did not crash. It was a pretty big pothole. After going over the pothole, I heard a rubbing sound from the front wheel when braking. Continued the ride home (20Km) and inspected it when I got home. I found a crack on the side of the rim. The tubular tires look fine. At the point of the crack, there's no visible damage to the tubular tires or the other side of the rim. The tubular tires also still hold air perfectly. I've attached some pictures below. A couple of questions:

I don't think the crack is due to impact. It's probably due to the side grazing the pothole. There wasn't damage on the other side. If it's an impact crack, it would likely appear on both sides?
Is this repairable and worth repairing?
I've read many other posts and the classic answer is &quot;is your face worth more than 1000 dollars for a new wheel&quot;. It's of course easy to buy a new wheel, but I'd like a more thorough answer on what caused this crack and whether or not it is still rideable from a scientific perspective.
Sorry to hear about your damage.

I don't think the crack is due to impact.

Maybe, maybe not, but regardless of a reason the wheel has become damaged. On the two sided likeness of damage — things are not symmetrical in practice, especially pot holes, and a crack does not have to be symmetrical.

Is this repairable and worth repairing?

It depends on whether a specific shop agrees to repair it. A wheel after such a repair essentially becomes warrantied by the repairing shop and not the wheel manufacturer. In a case the repair won't hold and you'll crash because of that, the liability will be on the shop. For this reason, many carbon repairing shops won't risk fixing such a critical part of a wheel as the braking surface. Other shops are more willing to address the problem.

I'd like a more thorough answer on what caused this crack and whether or not it is still rideable from a scientific perspective.

The wheel is certainly rideable now because you have managed to get back home on it. For how long it remains rideable before it fails, that is something nobody can tell for sure. There is likely not enough public statistics of people riding cracked carbon wheels to make any scientific predictions.