Parlee's Z-Zero was always the pinnacle of the Bostonian brand's carbon bikes, and the originals are the stuff of legend.
Now Parlee has now updated the Z-Zero, as a tribute to its founder, Bob Parlee, who died last year, and in honour of the company’s 25th anniversary.
The new Z-Zero GT takes the custom construction of the original Z-Zero and brings it fully up to date. A new carbon layup for the Z-Zero tubes and junctions means a drop in weight of 187g over the previous Z-Zero disc. That brings frameset weights down to around 900g, depending on size.
Parlee’s head of product Tom Rodi said: “Making a new Z-Zero was a huge undertaking for us, it has to live up to both Bob’s legacy and the legacy of the original Z-Zero, which was the first carbon frameset to go below a 1000g and still have class leading stiffness.
“The new Z-Zero GT is our love letter to the road, and all about how we build a bike for the one, not all.”
That love letter will cost you, though. Pricing starts at around $16,000 and the 25th anniversary edition of the all-road bike will set you back $29,990, with a host of accessories and special finishing touches included.
Two geometry options, and more besides
The all-road bike has a T47 bottom bracket, and the rear dropout is UDH, which Parlee says allows for new 1x drivetrains and future drivetrains too.
The Z-Zero is available in 12 standard sizes and fully bespoke custom. This means not only do you get unique geometry and sizing, but the layup of the carbon fibre is tuned to how you want it.
Parlee offers 20 standard colours, or you can opt for any colour combination, pattern, or design you wish with Parlee’s team of in-house painters and finishers in the Parlee Paint Lab.
The new Z-Zero GT is based on the classic Z series race geometry with a few tweaks. They’ve dropped the bottom bracket by 10mm to lower the centre of gravity and upped the tyre clearance to a generous 40mm.
The bike is available in two geometries, Race and Sport, with Sport adding more to the stack and shortening the reach across all sizes. Or, of course, you can have your own geometrical consultation with the Parlee design team.
Up front, the bike is fully integrated with a new GT-specific fork and a custom colour-matched one-piece carbon cockpit. In fact, Parlee will custom paint and match every element from the seatpost to the headset spacers. You can even have your carbon bottle cages painted to match.
This level of customisation, however, doesn’t come cheap, with the frameset (which includes CeramicSpeed headset, cockpit, and seatpost) priced at $12,490.
Complete bikes start at $16,490 for an SRAM Force XPLR 1x road bike, rising to an astonishing $22,990 for the Campagnolo Super Record 13 equipped bike with Partington R39/44 wheels.
Bob Parlee 25th Anniversary limited edition
If the top-of-the-range Z-Zero Campagnolo Super Record 13 isn't quite exclusive enough, then you can always opt for the ultra-limited edition, $29,990 Bob Parlee edition. Only 25 of these bikes will be made.
Bob was a big Campagnolo fan, so Parlee only saw it fitting to use Campagnolo’s latest flagship groupset for this edition. To that end, Campagnolo provided Parlee with the first 25 Campagnolo Super Record 13 group sets to be made.
Rodi said: “Bob is smiling to see the return of the famous thumb lever on the inside of the Ergopower levers!”
The chainset isn’t your ‘ordinary’ Super Record either, it’s a custom unit with SRM’s power meter built in. The wheels come from Australian wheel builders Partington.
CeramicSpeed provides the SLT headset and ceramic bottom bracket. Finally, Black Inc. has provided a one-piece custom carbon cockpit.
Gold is a theme with Parlee's paint lab customising all the frame logos and wheel logos with 24k carat gold leaf. The Pirelli tyres also have custom gold graphics.
Better Bolts provide titanium bolts with a custom gold PVD coating.
The bike is finished with handmade leather bar tape, saddle cover, and a kangaroo leather saddle pack from Leather Maestro, Busyman of Melbourne, Australia.
The 25th anniversary bike also gets a set of custom Silca hex keys and a custom Silca masterpiece track pump, plus a pair of custom Lake and Parlee road shoes to match.
The final piece in the puzzle is under the bottom bracket, is a graphic of Bob’s mantra. When riders spoke to Parlee about their bikes, wondering if they were as good as the reputation, Bob’s response was always ‘try it’ as he pushed a bike towards them.
It became the response to all questions in their Boston workshop, and so the reply is ‘RTFB’, or “Ride the F***king bike".
