Parlee TTIR Disc

Parlee was the first to put disc brakes on a TT bike, and has never been afraid to push the boundaries of available technology

While the rest of the industry was making its mind up whether disc brakes were the way of the future or just a flash in a pan, Parlee was working on ways to embrace their obvious benefits in a time-trial set-up. After all, being able to brake later for corners and more confidently in the wet are gains that can’t be ignored when it comes to the pursuit of speed against the clock.

‘We decided early on that we were only going to focus on a disc [time-trial] bike, as we felt the overall gains outweighed any drawbacks,’ says Parlee’s Tom Rodi. ‘Ride quality is still really critical, as many time-trials and triathlons are still long races, including climbs and descents. A TT bike needs to be a great race bike first and foremost, and we felt too many had drifted away from that all-around focus. Bob [Parlee] and the design team saw thru-axles and disc brakes as a path back, and as a result, it’s in terms of all-round performance that this bike really shines.’

A key motivation for Parlee in developing the TTIR Disc was to prove that a disc bike could be as fast as, or faster than, a rim brake machine if designed and built for purpose from the start. Extensive wind-tunnel testing resulted in design features such as the carbon fairings shrouding the disc callipers, and the company claims its data for what it terms ‘real-world’ conditions (ie, off-axis, or at yaw angles greater than 5°) shows the TTIR to be faster than what many would consider the benchmark TT bike: Cervélo’s P5.

This has been achieved with a frame weighing under 1.2kg, and with Parlee’s flex-fit modular cockpit and proprietary seatpost design allowing for huge adjustment range, the TTIR looks to be both a fast and a versatile beast.

With the TTIR, Parlee set out to prove that a disc bike could be as fast as, or faster than, a rim brake machine