Since most people on here view disc brakes as the worlds worst thing to ever come to bicycles, I doubt you will find anyone who has ridden it.

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Hey Bryan,

Thanks for your thoughts. May I ask why disc brakes are seen as the devil for most people? I thought the stopping power would be a welcome addition to any triathlete used to riding deep-set carbon wheels!

Cheers,

Ben

The Parlee is definitely a cool looking bike! I have a couple of friends that have Parlee road bikes and I rode one about 10 years ago. Definitely great bikes.

Did your fitter recommend any other bike to compare? While there may be one perfect bike, with the ability to change stems and pedestal cups and aero bars, I would expect a recommendation to suggest 2 or 3 bikes to test.

Hey mate,

Thanks for your response!

Yep, he also recommended the Ventum One, Dimond and Cervelo P5X. I've ruled out the latter as it's too expensive!

Cheers,

Ben

I agree with you. However, most people yell about the weight of disc brakes, the aerodynamic penalty, and all sorts of other stuff. The reality is disc brakes are coming and either get on board or get left behind.

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

I would question what is so special, from a bike fit perspective, about those 3 bikes that isn't available on something like a Canyon. The Speedmax is kind of long and low in frame geometry but has such a wide range of adjustment in pad stack and reach that it seems surprising if you couldn't achieve your position on both. Lots of other frame options available, I would think.

Seeing some parlees in person, the quality and finish of the carbon frames look beautiful.

I saw one of these for the first time at IM Boulder and thought it was a very handsome bike. Is it aero? Maybe. It certainly looks aero but I have not seen any data on the frame.


Disc brakes are frowned upon because of the assumed aero penalty. You have more surface area with the rotor and you almost always have more spokes on the wheels. Swisside (which is owned/operated by ex-F1 engineers) say that about 25% of a wheel's drag comes from "rotational drag" which can be mostly chalked up to spokes. More spokes = more drag. The only counter to this is that some people have speculated that not having rim brakes will free up designers to optimize things like rim shape, the head tube, etc. Personally I'm dubious of such claims.

Also, IMO, the braking thing is over-rated. I'll concede that disc brakes are better than virtually all carbon rim brakes (except for maybe the Zipp NSWs and the newest Enves) but you don't need carbon wheels for aero. Look at the HED Jets, especially the HED Jet Blacks.

I must be alone in thinking that disc brakes look cool

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No, you're not alone.

More interesting to me, are the bikes suggested.

The Parlee is an exceptionally tall and short bike. It's fit range/window is quite small.

Do you have your pad stack and reach?

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"One Line Robert"

They look cool and they just make too much sense not to use.

Agreed!

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Hey Robert,

Thanks for your message.

I absolutely love the look of the Canyon but apparently the stacks aren't quite high enough :-(

I've attached a pic with all my fitting info if that helps.

Cheers,

Ben

Hey mate,

Would love if the Canyon could fit me as you get a lot of bike for your buck and it looks the part too.

According to the guy who did the fitting, the stacking isn't sufficient which is a real shame I have to say.

Cheers!

Just another bike choice for you to consider given your stack/reach requirements: Specialized Shiv. It's an "old" bike at this point but you can build it up to be plenty fast (Omega X front brake, fast cockpit) and it certainly doesn't seem to slow down Ben Hoffman or Tim Don. If you plan on racing long course it's a great bike IMO. Since it's an older bike nearing the end of its production life you should be able to score a deal on one as well.

I've ridden a TTiR quite a bit. Here are a few things that are non-obvious, though common on new(er) integrated bikes.

The extensions do not tilt. (You may be able to accomplish a similar arm position with a different extension; I'm not sure what is available.) If you like a higher hand position, just make sure you can get there. (I ride with a higher hand position on other bikes, and the stock extensions do not provide for that.)

For travel, you will likely want to leave the handlebar on the bike. The cabling is such you cannot pull the handlebar off and place it next to the frame without also undoing the brakes. If you use hydraulic brakes, that would mean carrying a bleed kit, which seems really undesirable. So if you travel to races, think this through.

Even the narrowest pad position is quite wide.

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2015 USAT Long Course National Champion (M50-54)

Interesting, the pads on the Canyon pedestal up pretty high. If you were too short/tall for a Canyon then I would expect you to fit pretty well on some other bikes with that kind of geometry, and not necessarily limited to those on the list you provided.

Did he, by any chance, give you the output of your fit in terms of geometry measurements? Pad x/y is preferred, but sometimes you are given frame stack/reach and then hopefully some info about the bars they used. And effective seat tube angle.

This article outlines what a reasonable set of expectations are for a bike fit. If you didn't get anything like this then I'm sorry to say that it is going to be hard for anybody on here to help you.

Given the wide range of bar/stem adjustment, any reason you are not considering a Trek Speed Concept 9??

As for disc brakes, I don't consider them a bad thing, I just don't think they are necessary. If I happen to find a bike I really like, and it happens to come with disc brakes, all good.

https://www.bikerumor.com/...t-with-disc0-brakes/

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

that bike actually looks pretty nice. those covers are slick...

but reviews that use phrases like in that article are gag worthy.

"I appreciate that Parlee doesn’t scream about aerodynamics since the fact that the rider makes up almost 80% of the drag is something many manufacturers hide"

" If you are not able to get into an “optimal” position (and most don’t have the flexibility to do so), then the drag numbers become less useful"

everyone can get into an "optimal" position.

"As I mentioned above, wind tunnel data tells a narrow story of how a bike will perform on the road"

hmm...

" Like most TT bikes, it doesn’t have incredible acceleration"

what does that even mean?

"Another advantage of disc brakes was the increased cornering precision due to the 12mm thru axles. While not a big issue for most TT courses, it’s still another added reason for more manufacturers to make the switch to disc brakes."

"And while it may not have the radical new look of some new designs, the TTiR excels where it counts- aerodynamics..."

wait, but you just said that Parlee doesn't focus on aerodynamics

Oh, please...that's a meme for people who don't understand that a skewer isn't the thing taking all the stress in a wheel axle structure.

"This thru-axle is obviously larger and stiffer in bending than a typical wheels skewer, so the overall structure MUST be stiffer as well!"...ummm, actually...not so much ;-)

The physics of a "bolted joint" is tough for most to understand...

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

...and that there is an example of how exactly NOT to present aero data. So dumb...

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

but there are pretty pictures! Just kidding

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/