The Taos is our 3rd Generation Gravel bike and represents the culmination of 10 years of experience making some of the best gravel bikes in the world. The Taos is NOT a road bike with big tires. It is NOT a road bike with a slacker head-tube. The Taos is an all-new concept, built from the ground-up to win today’s blazingly fast 100-mile gravel races and to crush all-day epic adventures alike.
The Taos' monocoque frame construction provides an extremely lightweight foundation and provided us with the ability to engineer more compliance into the frame while maintaining a blazingly fast and responsive ride.
Handmade in the EU, our new precision layup process creates a perfect frame, both functionally and aesthetically. Like our new Ouray road bike, each piece of UD carbon fiber ply is meticulously placed to create a frame that requires no cosmetic layers, filler, bonding agents, or paint.
This level of finish quality is extremely hard to do -it’s why almost no one else does it- but the result is a perfect finish, straight out of the mold. That’s why we offer it with a bare nude waxed finish to showcase the ultimate in precision carbon manufacturing.
Our unique construction method delivers a true monocoque one-piece frame that’s incredibly lightweight (average frame weight ~940g), yet durable enough for real-world adventures.
This layup process gives us complete control over the ride quality, and a modular design gives you control over its handling. In fact, the Taos is the most adaptable bike we’ve ever made.
It’s also tough, with reinforced carbon layups in high-impact areas, and added rubberized protection over the chainstay and beneath the downtube. Opt for the waxed carbon finish and there’s no paint to scratch either…just wipe it down with a fresh coat of wax and your bike looks as good as new.
The Taos’ unique design and masterfully crafted carbon layup delivers an entirely new level of traction in a gravel bike.
Combine that with longer, lower & slacker geometry for improved stability at speed, and a torsionally stiff lower section and compact, sloping front triangle that maximizes power transfer, and you have a bike that sticks in the corners, floats in the straights, and flies up the climbs. Just like a great gravel bike should. Plus, all six frame sizes have their own custom layup and geometry to deliver the same amazing ride no matter what size bike you’re on.
Clearance for up to 700x50 tires let you run any rubber you want. Suspension-corrected geo lets you add a suspension fork without altering ride quality. And a front axle flip-chip lets you adjust the wheelbase and head angle when using smaller tires for a more road-biased ride quality.
Run it 1x or 2x with a removable front derailleur mount. Combine that with fender mounts, internal downtube storage, top tube bag mounts, and stealth dropper seatpost routing and you have a bike that’s ready for any adventure, whether you're racing the clock or chasing daylight.
Every frame is made one at a time, in small batches, then individually built to order at our US headquarters. Choose from six frame sizes that can be built in standard or tall configurations, then choose your desired cockpit (including bar width, stem length, seat and seatpost configuration), wheels, tires, drivetrain, and accessories.
The Taos is the next generation of Parlee gravel bike, delivering our signature ride quality and handling on a modern machine that’s ready for your next adventure, wherever that may be. This is the ultimate gravel bike.
