Dario Pegoretti, a sneak peak at what's new...

Here just a couple shots, see how many changes you can find. Ian is flying to Austin right now and will be talking to Dario for a while tomorrow at the hand built bike show. He'll be getting all the information on what's new for these bikes and even a bit of the why...

For now, enjoy!

There are actually quite a few things that Dario has done to this frameset. How many can you find? We'll fill you in on everything in a few days...

Day is Done

We really, really like this one...

No, we LOVE this one!

Simple elegance

Last week at Above Category, in pictures...

A lot has been going on here in the last seven days, in fact too much to write about here. So instead, here's a photo journal of the past week here at Above Category...

The week started off nicely, a newly built Parlee Z1 to ride and short wearing weather on Mt. Tam...


And then we had a nice visit with Larry K. and saw all the incredible new clothing from Assos that is coming next fall/winter. We'll have a few teaser pics posted on some of the choicest items in the next day or so...


Later, we built this beautiful Moots RSL for Don.


And then unpacked our first ever shipment of the brand new Fizik road shoes!


After a little rest, Ralf built this sweet new BMC Four Stroke Mtn. Race bike for Spence P.


Which turned out to be a 20lb fully built (minus pedals) kick ass race bike. I want one and I hardly ride Mtn...


Next bike to go out was Roberts Pinarello Paris. He's had this for a little bit but we tricked it out a bit with some black label Lightweight Standards. In tubular of course...


And then we got a ride in with our buddy Joao C. and Tony L. Got in a very scenic two hours between massive rain storms and stayed dry!


Took a postcard photo along the way...


Tony got a flat on his tubulars, but check out all the stans on his frame. It worked though and he was able to get home, though the hole was too big to save and we put a new tire on.


We watch a lot of movies here at AC, who can guess what movie this is?


Woody working...


and Zack sleeping.


Still thinking of how we're going to build this Parlee TT frame up. Di2 for sure, Lightweight disc, but what bars? Custom painted though for sure, as well as the seat post. White tape, white saddle but what front wheel?


Woke up Saturday morning with snow on Mt. Tam! That doesn't happen too often...


Woke up to this on Sunday morning. Camped out Saturday night for the Pine Flat RR on Sunday. This is the starting point...


Spent the day on the attack, but mostly got my ass kicked by a bunch of Jr's! Here I'm in a two man break with one of those ass kickers. Team did great, Alistair grabbed a second and Isaiah claimed a hard fought 4th. Alex killed himself for the first three quarters of the race and finished up riding piano with me at the back...


Building up another killer Parlee Z5 and trying to figure out which hubs will go best with the matte finish. Pewter or black? I'm voting pewter...


And we finished up today with an SRM installation on JK's Moots RSL. C-Dale SRM and a press fit 30 BB. Stronglight rings that we had to order mail order from France, nice...

Thanks for taking the time to read, or at least look at the pictures! Looking forward to this week as much as last! Until then...

Our new test bike, the Parlee Z1

We've just finished putting 2000 hard winter miles on our Pinarello Kobh (see the post on that awesome bike here) and we're ready for a new ride. There are a few directions we can go in and at the top of the list was our new custom painted Parlee Z5, but we are still waiting for a few parts on that so it was decided to go with the Parlee Z1.
This is not a new bike by a long stretch, but based on how the Parlee Z3 performs (post here) we are expecting the same if not an even better experience. The fact that this bike has stood the test of time is proof of just how right Bob Parlee got it the first time around. And after a week of riding it I can attest to how good this bike really is, but more on that later. For now, here's a few shots of the bike and how we built it for our personal review... Enjoy!

Parlee Z1, Custom geometry. 56.5 top tube, 55cm seat tube (C-T)

• Reynolds UL fork (yeah we know, they don't make them anymore)
• 3T Rotundo LTD bar, 42cm
• 3T Arx Pro Stem, 6 degree 110
• Chris King headset
• Chris King bottom bracket in GREEN!
  
• Fizik shiny tape
• Fizik post, aluminum
• Fizik Antares 00 saddle
• Shimano Dura-Ace rear derailleur
• Shimano Dura-Ace front derailleur, braze-on
• Shimano Dura-Ace shift/brake levers
• Shimano Dura-Ace brake calipers
• Shimano Dura-Ace cassette 12X25
• Shimano Dura-Ace chain
  
• Shimano Dura-Ace/SRM power meter, 170mm 53X39
• Lightweight Obermayer wheels
  
• Continental Competition 22mm tires
  
• Speedplay Zero Ti pedals
• King ti cages
• All in, 14.94lbs

Shiny Fizik tape and 3T Rotundo Ltd's


Shiny cables


Chris King headset and shifter bosses without any barrel adjusters. The Dura-Ace stuff has been perfect and have not needed to adjust shifting once, so why bother with the barrel adjusters? Also of note, Parlee does not drill their frames at all and all mounts are molded on, not riveted...


Parlee's sweet front derailleur clamp. Light as they come and super functional. You can buy these separately and use on almost any bike. Heck, even Richard Sachs uses them on his bikes!


Light wheels...


What makes a Z1 a Z1, the stays. Beautiful.


Hand wrapped tubes, gorgeous and strong. Also, the GREEN Chris King BB! Not sure why I get such a kick out of the green stuff, just not many times when you can get away with it I guess...


Shimano Dura-Ace skewers, last of the breed of great, simple quick releases...


Fizik seatpost, quickly becoming a shop favorite. Nothing really needs to be said about the Fizik saddles, we've mentioned a million times how much we love those...


Shortest stem I've used in a while due to having a custom bike. Dario Pegoretti told me that 110 is the ideal sized stem for someone my height. Bike handles great so I believe him...


Great tires


Magnet is embedded in the wheels sidewall. Nice and clean.


Beautiful ti dropouts


Again, no holes in the frame. The bolts are molded onto the frame and then nuts are used to secure the cages...

Stay tuned as we start piling the miles on this bike. It'll be getting it's first race test tomorrow at Pine Flat... Give us a call or come on by to find out more about this hand built work of art!

The wait has ended: Introducing Fizik shoes, at Above Category now!

In all fairness the wait really hasn't been too bad. In bike world time, it was actually pretty quick. Fizik made the major announcement that they were going to start making shoes at about Eurobike time, or at least that's when we saw some of the first pictures of them. We have been like little kids waiting for Christmas ever since.
So, I guess that February 16 is kind of like Christmas as we just received the first part of our order! We received the shoes you see below which are the R3 Uomo in white/black and red and the R3 Donna in black/crema. We'll have proper photo's up soon. The R1's should be here mid March by the way.

Just a start. We received pretty much every size of the Uomo R3 and Donna R3 in today so come on by and take a look or try a pair on.


The box


The box minus cover...


The box, opened. Cool box actually, packaged well...


And there you go, your very own pair of Fizik Uomo shoes ready to be put to use! Give us a shout with any questions!

Parlee Z5 in Candy Apple Red

Seems like it has been Parlee month here at Above Category and in keeping with that theme, here is a Z5 that we built in December. This one also has been custom painted by Parlee in Candy Apple Red and unfortunately these pictures (taken by me, not Dean!) don't do it justice.

Straight out of the box and on to the counter. Very simple and very elegant.


Outside in the sunlight...


This is what most of the other makes of bikes would look like if they took off the cosmetic layers of carbon (or molded shapes) around the bottom bracket. Bob Parlee only puts on what is absolutely necessary for top performance and nothing else.


The bike was built with full Shimano Dura-Ace including the wheels and pedals. Fizik Aliante saddle and bar tape, Deda Zero 110 stem and bars and King Ti cages. Don't really remember the final weight on this bike but it was down there...


The other side...


Here's that BB area again, all built up. Parlee also has some great Shimano to BB30 adaptor cups made for them...


Sweet alloy Dura-Ace crankset. Also, you can see the Parlee carbon front derailleur clamp. Works extremely well and lessens the chance of over tightening the front derailleur bolt and damaging the seat tube.


Just like the Parlee Z1; twin seat stays. A bit more classy looking than a monostay (in our opinion at least) and supposedly offers a little smoother ride.


The front end


And out back. A 11X28 cassette matched to the compact crank pretty much ensures that there is not a mountain too high...

Thanks for reading, please contact us for any questions on any of these bikes!