Sizzling on the heels of their Ouray all-road bike comes the Taos, a flexible gravel bike with the identical monocoque “nude” carbon body building however a give attention to delivering next-level traction.
Impressed by the big variety of terrain round Taos, New Mexico, their newest creation suits big tires and makes use of a dropped-stay, closely sloping body design to take in chatter and hold your wheels planted. It additionally replaces the Chebacco as their inventory providing, although you may nonetheless get a full customized Z-series gravel body if you’d like.
An all-new body
Just like the Ouray, the Taos’ body is a full monocoque design, made in a single piece of their new European companion manufacturing unit, and comes with a waxed end sans paint.
This design offers them full management over the whole bike’s trip high quality in ways in which tube-to-tube or lugged building can’t. And so they do it with such precision that each UD layer you see is precisely the way it comes out of the mould, completely positioned and completely purposeful…there are not any added beauty layers, ending, bonding, overwraps, or filler.
Which is why they provide it with a nude end that has nothing however a sturdy wax coating over it. That makes it lighter, with a claimed common body weight underneath 1kg, but it’s powerful sufficient to face up to the weather and some knocks. As a result of it’s a gravel bike, high-impact zones are strengthened, and rubberized protecting shields cowl the underside of the downtube close to the BB and the chainstays.
About that traction
With the one-piece building, Parlee is ready to tune the carbon fiber used within the seat tube, high tube, and seat stays to be extra compliant on the saddle than a typical gravel bike. They declare it has 20% extra compliance on the saddle than is typical. Whilst you really feel that as extra consolation, it additionally means the rear tire has extra constant contact with the bottom, which interprets to higher traction because the wheel skips much less.
The Taos suits as much as 700x50mm (2.0″) tires, which maximizes the tire patch and quantity, additionally aiding in grip and luxury. They are saying all of it provides as much as a motorbike that provides higher traction than the rest available on the market.
It’s additionally quick…
The underside half of the bike is stiff for environment friendly energy switch. Whether or not you’re grinding up a climb, hammering for the end, or simply making the miles disappear as rapidly as potential, it’ll take advantage of all of your watts.
Refined aero touches assist with this. The highest of the downtube is a subtler model of their wind tunnel-proven Recurve design, and all cables and wires are hidden contained in the stem and body for a full stealth look. Parlee isn’t making any aero claims for the Taos, however it’s designed with single-day races like Unbound, BWR, and so on., in thoughts.
As such, it has three bottle cage mounts (two contained in the entrance triangle, one beneath) and high tube bag mounts, plus their first-ever inner downtube storage compartment. However that’s about it. You may strap extra luggage to it, however it’s not supposed for fully-loaded bikepacking.
…and versatile
The Taos’ geometry is suspension corrected. Its fork has a 425mm axle-to-crown measurement, just like fashionable gravel suspension forks. Add any 30-40mm fork you need and geometry barely adjustments.
Preserve it inflexible and you should utilize the flip-chip dropout to alter the fork offset from 45-51mm. Whereas it’s billed as a gravel bike, Parlee is aware of many riders like their bikes to tug double responsibility, and this one’s suitable with tires right down to 700×32. Change the fork offset to regulate the dealing with to fit your tire measurement and desires.
Geometry & requirements
The Taos is obtainable in six body sizes, every with the choice for traditional or tall head tube setups. This, together with full customized element builds for each bike primarily based in your match knowledge, guarantee virtually each rider can discover a excellent match aboard the Taos.
The bike comes with built-in headsets for stealth routing, they usually use the widespread headset requirements so you should utilize any widespread setup from FSA, ENVE, Token, Deda, PRO, and so on.
Additionally they use a normal spherical seatpost and T47 BB. The entrance brake comes customary with a 160mm rotor because the smallest measurement, which helps you to simply change to a 180mm rotor with none particular adapters. The rear brake sticks with the widespread 140/160 sizing.
Spec overview
- Development: One-piece, UD (uni-directional) carbon monocoque body and fork
- Design: All-road geometry with modular Flex-Match system
- TT Slope: Sloping, 15-21 levels (size-specific)
- Tire Clearance: 32-50mm (measured)
- Seatpost: 31.6mm, spherical, 0mm or 25mm offset, replaceable exterior clamp
- Cabling: Full inner routing, digital drivetrain solely
- Backside Bracket: T47, inner, 85.5mm width
- Drop Outs: 142mm thru-axle, UDH (Common Derailleur Hanger) suitable, 140/160 rear rotors
- F. Derailleur: Braze-on, detachable, contains 1x blanking panel
- Normal End: Nude, waxed carbon – Parlee Paintlab customized paint accessible
- Fork Specs:
- Full carbon
- Built-in crown race
- Hidden cabling
- Flat mount disc
- 100mm thru-axle
- 160/180 rotor suitable
- Suspension fork prepared geometry
- Headset: Built-in IS52 higher and decrease, stainless bearings
- Flex-Match Spacers: Included ENVE, FSA, and PRO quick and tall high caps and common match cap
The Taos will likely be accessible by Parlee’s supplier community with all kinds of builds.
ParleeCycles.com
