Reviews of Products

Product Pros/Cons

Our Take

Model Overviews

Company Statistics:

Location: Beverly, MA
Number of Employees: Approximately 15.
Year of First Bike Sold: 2001
Materials Used: Carbon Fiber.
Point of Origin: The Z1, Z2, Z3 and Custom TT are handbuilt in MA. The Z5, Z4 and the Stock TT are designed in MA and made in Asia to Parlee’s exact specifications.
Delivery: Stock bikes are often available immediately (add a couple weeks for custom paint). All custom Parlee frames are built to order and are usually shipped 8-14 weeks from order.
Specialty: Parlee focuses purely on carbon fiber and building performance oriented frames. Parlee frames are known for their plush ride, ultra-light weight, impressive lateral stiffness and high quality of manufacturing.
Unique Attributes: Parlee Cycles started with one goal: to build the best carbon fiber frames they could. This meant not trying to sell 10,000 frames a year, but instead building each frame one at a time with as few fillers or compromises as possible. With a Parlee, what you see is what you get. They were one of the first carbon builders to allow for customization, to offer top grade high modulus carbon fiber, and to use titanium instead of aluminum on their structural metal work.
Web Site: www.parleecycles.com

Pros of Parlee Bicycles:

• Carbon is all that Parlee does and their focus shows in the ride quality and performance of the end result. Parlee frames are very balanced.
• Stock frame geometry on the Z5 and Stock TT fits far more riders well than average.
• All of Parlee’s custom Z1, Z2 and Z3 frames use a very high grade carbon fiber and top quality titanium fittings make for frames designed to last a lifetime.
• The finish quality and tubing quality of the stock Parlee Z5, Z4 and Stock TT is the best we have seen from a factory outside of the U.S. and the price is competitive with offerings from more generic mass produced big brands.
• Customizable frames are built by hand by people who really care about making the most compromise free carbon bike they can.
• The Parlee TT custom is arguably the nicest TT frame money can buy – definitely in the top two regardless.

Considerations of Parlee Bicycles:

• Delivery windows are wider than average. Expect to wait 8-12 weeks from order date.
• Limited price points. Parlee’s are not inexpensive, but you do get what you pay for.

• Parlee does not believe in using fillers to mask surface imperfections; what you see is what you get. If you want an absolutely flawless surface aesthetic, you may be disappointed. If you want as flawless a surface aesthetic as possible without using fillers, you will be very pleased.

Our Take:

How did we first learn about Parlee Bicycles and what stood out? From our inception in 2001, Fit Werx carried a customizable carbon frame brand. At that time, there were very few custom carbon options. The initial brand we carried built some nice frames, but we had a number of supply and delivery issues with them and had our eyes open for other options for some time. One of the companies we were keeping our eye on was a small builder in the Boston area that was building custom carbon – this builder was named after its founder Bob Parlee. Over the years, Parlee kept building frames and developing out their line and every year we were seeing and hearing good things from them. One thing that stood out was their dogmatic approach to building frames – simply put, they would not build a bike for less money if it meant compromising quality or ride. Their goal was to build the lightest, laterally stiff, best riding, best fitting and performing frames in the world and they seemed to be well on their way to certainly being contenders for that title.

In 2005, we decided to make a line change and switched from our previous custom carbon line to Parlee. Two athletes from Texas came up for fittings and ordered the first two and we have been working with Parlee ever since. As of 2010, Parlee has moved into a a new factory in Beverly, MA, which means that they are still located close to Fit Werx² in Peabody, MA and we see Bob Parlee and his wife Isabelle at Fit Werx in Vermont when they come up for skiing.

Model/Product Overview: Parlee offers a continuously growing range of custom products that start around $8000 built up and ready to ride, as well as stock carbon fiber frames that can be built up starting around $4000.

Parlee builds all of their frames out of multi-modulus carbon fiber – some of the best available in the industry. All of Parlee’s custom frames use titanium dropouts and bottom bracket shells to maximize durability and eliminate the potential of galvanic corrosion that can afflict the aluminum inserts found in most carbon frames. Each custom Parlee starts with a tube selection to match the individual rider’s needs in regards to weight, stiffness and compliance. Parlees are distinguished by their fiber lay-up and tube design as well as their proprietary molding process. Parlee has all their tubing built to their specifications and quality levels and the vast majority of their frame components (dropouts, cable stops, bottle bosses, wishbones, etc.) are built specifically to their needs as well. They don’t use gimmicks or inferior off-the-shelf products just to save money or to create a fancy ad slogan; they just use solid rational design and execution processes.

Parlee’s tubing is engineered to have the best strength to weight ratio possible. For this reason, you won’t see extraneous shapes/curves/flares on a Parlee – instead you find very functional tubing that is purpose specific. The purpose is to create as balanced and high performance a ride as possible.  The result is that all Parlees, like their founder, have a personality. Judging from athlete feedback and the press, we are not going to be asking them to change the way their bikes ride anytime soon.

Parlee aims to be defined by their build quality and ride quality characteristics. Whether you are looking at the top of the line Z1 or the stock Z4, the same engineering principles are applied across the line and this “trickle down” approach creates a signature Parlee ride. The Parlee ride is one that is livelier and more forgiving than almost all carbon frames on the market, while simultaneously being exceptionally light and very responsive and laterally stiff. It is as uncompromising as you can get. Carbon is the first material in bike design that allowed Bob to create the ride characteristics he wanted.

Beyond ride, Parlee understands that a nice frame should be an investment and one designed for the long-term. There are few things more unfortunate than seeing your beautiful bike spiral into a guard rail at full speed after an unplanned separation from your body. The vast majority of carbon frames find this to be a brutal and very final ending. Parlee does not believe that a bike frame should be disposable. This means starting with the strong, higher modulus uni-directional prepreg carbon materials to maximize durability and ending with making sure that their design allows for frames that are some of the most repairable available (hey, accidents happen…). Parlees are designed and built for riders that understand that you tend to get what you pay for and that a nice frame should be looked at as a long-term investment. In the next ten years, you can buy three or four generic riding mass produced frames at around $3K a pop, or one exceptional Parlee.

Not a Carbon Copy: Whether you are considering the top of the line hand fabricated Parlee Z1 or the readily available stock geometry Z4, signature Parlee build concepts, ride and engineering are found regardless. Integrated full carbon cable stops that are molded, not riveted, into the frame are a good example of a quality detail that bridges all Parlee models.

Parlee Bikes and Frames : Z5, Z4, Z2/Z3, Z1, TT Stock, TT Custom

Parlee offers stock geometry only bikes that are made to Parlee’s exacting standards by an overseas factory and they offer customizable frames that are built by hand in their factory in MA (just a few doors down from Fit Werx in Peabody!).

Parlee’s stock geometry line is simple and very well thought out geometrically as they are one of the few companies that understands the wide range of frame geometry needs of a variety of athletes.  Many of their stock frames are thus available in two head tube heights per size.  Parlee offers two road frames, the Z4 and Z5 in a multitude of sizes and they offer the Stock TT on the TT/Tri side.

Parlee also offers handcrafted frames that are built in MA and are available in stock frame geometry or custom for both road and tri.  The custom handcrafted road frames are the Z1, Z2 and Z3 and the TT Custom is the hand crafted custom TT/Tri frame. They also offer some derivatives of their road frames for cross and touring.   Not too complicated, right?

The confusion comes when you are trying to figure out the differences between the custom handcrafted road frames (Z1, Z2 and Z3) as they have more similarities than differences. In a nutshell, they all use the exact same tubing quality and have the same tubing options and fabrication. They differ in that the flagship Z1 (the original Parlee custom frame design) offers a split rear seatstay design, to maximize vibration damping in the rear triangle, while the Z2 and Z3 use a monoblock seatstay. The Z2 and Z3 only differ in top tube geometry and are otherwise identical. The Z2 is horizontal and the Z3 is sloping. All other hardware and custom options are the same between models.  That’s it.  Got it?

Z5

Material: Multi-modulus unidirectional carbon fiber with carbon dropouts and BB30 bottom bracket shell.   Geometry: Stock Parlee road geometry w/multiple headtube length options. Price Category: Frameset w/fork and headset: $3500-$4500. Built bikes start around $6000. Components: Fit Werx Custom Rider Matched.

Who is it for? The Parlee Z5 offers one of the widest fit windows of any production bike due to well thought out geometry that offers two head tube lengths per size.  This makes the Z5 one of the most versatile fitting stock bikes available.  The Z5 is for the performance rider who is looking for a carbon bike with the character and personality that only a speciality builder like Parlee can offer without having to spend over $10,000 to get it.

Noteworthy: Not just super light, the Parlee Z5 sticks to its roots by offering the crisp and smooth ride that defines a Parlee.  The cleanest fabrication we have seen on a bike not built in the U.S..

Bottom Line: The Z5 is designed to highlight all that modern cycling technology and design can offer. The goal of the Z5 was to maintain the signature Parlee ride and build quality, while also building up as light as possible without sacrificing strength and durability and keeping the price competitive with mainstream top end bikes from Specialized and Trek.  This meant taking the quality of the Z4, but then going back to the design table to see where weight could be saved.   The Parlee Z5 uses full carbon molded dropouts, BB30, eliminates the weight of a seat lug, uses lighter twin stay seat stays (like the Z1) than the heavier wishbone found on the Z4, a lightly tapered 1.125″-1.25″ over sized fork, and some other minor details to shave about 300 grams of weight from the Z4 (which is a light frame to begin with!).  Impressive indeed.

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Z4

Material: Multi-modulus unidirectional carbon fiber with aluminum dropouts and bottom bracket shell.  Geometry: Stock Parlee road geometry. Price Category: Frameset w/fork and headset: $2500-$3000. Built bikes start around $5000. Components: Fit Werx Custom Rider Matched.

Who is it for? The value oriented performance rider who fits well on a stock race geometry bike and is looking for a bike with the character and personality that only a speciality builder like Parlee can offer. This is not just another mass produced carbon road bike.

Noteworthy: In a sea of generic “me too” carbon bikes, this bike sticks to its ideals, not just what the market trends are at a given moment.  The cleanest fabrication we have seen on a bike not built in the U.S..

Bottom Line: The Z4 is designed to compete on price with many mass produced frames from the big brands. The goal of the Z4 was to maintain the signature Parlee ride and build quality from the Z1 and Z3, but to reduce costs where possible. The ride quality could not be maintained by using base grade carbon fiber, so there was not going to be much money that could be saved in the carbon fiber. This left two places to cut some costs while still being able to product a high quality end result: 1) use aluminum instead of titanium on the structural metal work. 2) build the frame outside of North America. This is exactly what Parlee did. The result is a frame that costs significantly less than Parlee’s other offerings while still having the core ride characteristics Parlee riders love.

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Z3/Z2

Material: Multi-modulus unidirectional carbon fiber with titanium dropouts and bottom bracket shell.Geometry: Stock Parlee road or full Custom. The Z2 and Z3 are listed together as the only difference is that the Z2 uses a horizontal top tube and the Z3 has a sloping/compact top tube.  Price Category: Frameset w/fork, headset and carbon front derailleur clamp $5000+/- in stock geometry and $6000+ in custom. Built bikes start around $7000. Components: Fit Werx Custom Rider Matched.

Who is it for? The uncompromising rider looking for a carbon frame of superior fit, ride quality, weight and durability.

Noteworthy: The stock geometry allows for head tube height adjustments of up to 2cm at no extra charge and this is one of the only sub 1000g frames that could ever claim to not be disposable after a season or two of hard riding.

Bottom Line: This is a lot of frame for something that weighs so little (frequently under 1000g). When fit and designed properly, the Z2/Z3 makes for a great riding bike. One of our favorite overall carbon frames because of its exceptional ride combined with top grade materials and fabrication. Titanium fittings mean it is designed to last a lifetime and the Parlee build process means that the carbon tubes can be repaired if damaged. Fully customizable means a tunable ride to match the needs of more riders as acurately as possible.

Critically acclaimed (2006 Cycling Weekly “Race bike of the Year”) and athlete adored (we always hear very good things back about how their bikes ride from Parlee owners), this bike should be on any carbon fiber rider’s short list.

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Z1

Material: Multi-modulus unidirectional carbon fiber with titanium dropouts and bottom bracket shell.  Geometry: Stock Parlee road or full Custom. Price Category: Frameset w/fork, headset and carbon front derailleur clamp $7000+ in custom and $5000+ in stock geometry. Built bikes start around $7500. Components: Fit Werx Custom Rider Matched.

Who is it for? The uncompromising rider looking for a carbon frame of superior fit, ride quality, weight and durability.

Noteworthy: The stock geometry allows for head tube height adjustments of up to 2cm at no extra charge and this is one of the only sub 1000g frames that could ever claim to not be disposable after a season or two of hard riding.

Bottom Line: Bicycling Magazine named the Parlee Z1 its “Dreambike of the Year” for 2007 for good reason: It is lively, smooth, light and extremely responsive. A true race bike, yet a true race bike that can be ridden all day and that can be made to fit everyone well. What is even more amazing is that the Z1 was Parlee’s first model and has been around in one form since 2001 – a true testament to the longevity that quality engineering and design can create.

The Z1 differs from the Z2 and Z3 in its use of a split seatstay. The split stay is used to maximize compliance and vibration damping ability of the rear triangle while also providing a more traditional aesthetic. Visions of classic brazed steel frames come to mind when looking at a Z1, until you lift it… The split stay is more labor intensive to build than the monostay used on the other Z bikes and this difference in the stays is why the price is higher on the Z1.

This is one bike that is designed not to just be dreamed about, it should be ridden. Life is too short to ride junk and the Z1 is about as far away from junk as one can get.

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TT Stock (Custom Pictured)

Material: Multi-modulus unidirectional carbon fiber.  Geometry:Stock Multi-Fit Parlee TT/Tri Geometry. Price Category: Frameset w/fork, headset, and seatpost: $3500-$5000. Built bikes start around $5,500. Components: Fit Werx Custom Rider Matched.

Who is it for? The triahlete or TT rider looking for something a little different in a sea of aero bikes that often look and ride very similar.

Noteworthy: Fit Werx was consulted in the design of the geometry of this frame and we love where Parlee went with it. Long and low or shorter and a bit taller, the Parlee Stock TT offers the most versatile sizing options to date on a stock TT/tri bike.

Bottom Line: Take the exceptional and proven design and NACA shaped tubing of the full custom Parlee TT frameset, put it into a versatile stock geometry and build it overseas (like all the similarly priced competition) and you get the stock TT. A sensible and versatile geometry and Parlee’s background in hydrodynamics (Bob used to build performance carbon fiber sailboat parts) shines through. We anticipate that the Parlee Stock TT will be the “sleeper” hit of the tri/TT world starting as when you add up how well it fits, how high performance it is, how well it is made and how well it is priced, you end up with a heck of a lot of bike.

TT Custom

Material: Multi-modulus unidirectional carbon fiber with titanium dropouts and bottom bracket shell.  Geometry: TT Custom = Full Custom. Price Category: Frameset w/fork, headset, and seatpost: $8000+. Built bikes start around $11,000 Components: Fit Werx Custom Rider Matched.

Who is it for? When the ultimate TT/Tri frame is what you want, the Parlee TT is the bike. This is as light, smooth, responsive and aero as a TT/Tri frame can get. It also can fit anyone.

Noteworthy: When Parlee set out to create a TT/Tri frame, they didn’t hold back. This is one of the highest performance and best fitting aero frame currently available.

Bottom Line: We’ve been anticipating this frame for awhile. The TT Custom was originally slated to be released in 2007 and we even had a couple on order as the prototypes looked great. However, Bob Parlee likes to tinker and he likes to make sure things are as good as he can make them before he puts his name on it, so the model was delayed. After months more of tweaks and retooling, the TT Custom was finally shipping and it is even better than when we first saw it. Simply put, if there were not any sponsorships or financial limitations, and pro triathletes were deciding what to ride purely on performance and ride quality, this would be the frame most would choose to ride. A true NACA based shape, custom geometry and Parlee’s proprietary hand laid carbon fiber create what is currently the epitome of aero frame technology.

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