Once again, with the help of Jason from Fairwheel Bikes, I dove head first into another bike build. Was looking for a more compact frame and liked the option of the tall headtube from Parlee's Z5i. So, got a ST (small, tall). All internal full housing cable routing. Rode it last weekend for first time and really enjoyed the ride - was exactly what I was looking for.

Will post build list eventually, but weight came to 6.22 kg.

Nice build!

Nice build, Fairwheel and Jason are great to deal with.
The Z5 range is hard to beat for all round capability. Enjoy riding your Z5i, they are great bikes

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Ozrider - Western Australia
Parlee Z5 XL 2011 (6055g/13.32lbs) Raleigh RC Ltd 2008 (7.6kg) Reynolds 653 Custom 1990 (9.8kg, now 8.8kg)
The accumulation of marginal gains is what makes the difference between winning and losing

congrats.
is that New Ultimate seatpost?

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Neo Cycles

Nice work! Good mixed gruppo selection

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Skunkworks Bikes

I have a new found love affair with parlee's!

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Caad10 with Campagnolo

Lovely bike and great harmonised build, however, those tall headtubes look ridiculous!

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Scott CR1 - 12.84Ib

@stevec1975 - to you they might look ridiculous, but to a rider like me who needs a taller head tube (long legs, short torso) they are a godsend. Looks far better than riding with an upturned stem or a spacer tower. On my XL frame it probably doesn't look as obvious.
Anyway having a bike fit properly is far more important than appeasing the "fashion police"

I think it is fantastic that Parlee provides a solution for riders needing a longer head tube,

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Ozrider - Western Australia
Parlee Z5 XL 2011 (6055g/13.32lbs) Raleigh RC Ltd 2008 (7.6kg) Reynolds 653 Custom 1990 (9.8kg, now 8.8kg)
The accumulation of marginal gains is what makes the difference between winning and losing

I think tall head tube is not a reason why this frame looks aesthetically strange.
This strange (or what stevec1975 calls ridiculous) look comes from connection point, of top and head tubes, sitting too low.
If top tube is connected to the head tube at the very top, this frame will look really good. It would mean that all "Tall Head Tube" Parlee frames will have more slope than "Normal Head Tube" frames and to me that would look far more aesthetically pleasing.

I understand why some people need taller head tube I just don't know why Parlee chose to do it this way.

Before:


Connection point of top tube and head tube lifted up (photoshop retouched):

Thanks Kaaos, that's pretty much exactly my point, in a much more eloquent way. Fully agree a bike needs to fit but there are better ways of doing it as alluded to.

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Scott CR1 - 12.84Ib

That might work and look ok on a small frame, but question is how it would look on a xl frame.
Remember that the Z5i is a production frame available in both normal and tall headtube.

Above is possible - if you want to pay for custom frame

Sorry, I believe what you're talking about is just not so. This thread shows a size Small frame. As you increase the frame size in the Z5 models, the space increases between where the toptube and downtube meet the headtube. I'm sure the location on the smaller sizes has to do with more than aesthetics.

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2011 Tarmac Pro SL3 Project Black (gone but not forgotten)
2012 Parlee Z5 SLi (just because)
2014 Colnago C59 (why not)

phallenthoul - thanx for comment - seatpost is actuallly a Mcfk (debadged) - i think it fits great

Stevec1975 - in a perfect world i agree with you 100% - not the greatest aesthetically with the tall head tube, but much more preferable than a stack of spacers. I'm nearing the half century mark, so not as flexible anymore - so for me a great solution to get into a more compact frame.

I like your photoshop, but don't think that your correction looks all that great either - i think somewhere between current setup and your photoshop would probably be perfect

i appreciate the touch-up, neat to see what it would look like.

Partial Build List

2013 Parlee Z5i ST
Enve 2.0 fork
EE Cycleworks Brakeset
FSA nano Bars
Extralite Stem
Dash - Slate 7 saddle
THM M3 Modular Crankset
Praxis Clover - Compact Rings
Record Gruppo - mechanical 11 speed
Enve 3.4 Smart Clinchers
Tune Mig/Mag Hubs Sapim CX-Ray
Tune Bottle Cages
Spd pedals
Cane Creek Headset