This bike was inspired by the town of Ouray, located deep in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, where all roads deliver epic experiences. Dubbed the “Switzerland of the U.S.”, its ribbons of curving mountain roads offer epic climbs, blazing descents, and plenty of rugged backroads to explore, it’s the type of place every drop bar cyclist dreams of.

Ouray is also the type of place that tests what a bike is made of, so we built the Ouray (pronounced “yur-ay”) to excel on the climbs, descents, and everywhere in between, and on everything from perfect pavement to chunky winter-worn asphalt to smooth dirt roads.

Most other bicycle frames are made in sections, then bonded together or overwrapped with more carbon fiber. While both of these methods produce great frames, and we use these methods ourselves on other models, a monocoque frame allows for an overall lighter frame with a more refined ride quality. Here’s why:

Bonding creates joints that have to be filled and sanded, then painted to hide those joints. Overwrapping, which is combining tubes or sections by wrapping additional layers of carbon around the joints, adds more material. Paint and extra material both add weight, but more importantly, assembling a frame from individual pieces makes it harder to achieve cohesive ride quality throughout the frame.

By making the entire Ouray frame as a single piece, we eliminate any joints and precisely control how each piece of carbon fiber interacts with the next, allowing us ultimate control over how the finished product rides.

We go a step further to ensure that every layer is perfectly aligned, allowing us to offer the frame with our first-ever “nude” finish, showing off the beautiful carbon construction.

Ever wonder why so many high-end, boutique carbon fiber frames add 100g or more of paint on top? Laying up unidirectional fibers, particularly when laying up the entire frame as a single piece like we're doing here, is exceptionally hard. It's even harder to keep those carbon layers perfectly positioned, wrinkle-free, and without gaps or steps that require sanding and fillers to smooth over.

With the Ouray, we take it one step further. No cosmetic woven layers hide our perfect UD carbon frame. Everything you see is functional (and beautiful!), and it's the result of more than 25 years of perfecting carbon fiber bicycle design and manufacturing.

The nude carbon finish also means that there’s no paint to chip so the bike will look great for years and years to come. It’s the perfect finish for a bike that can go anywhere and ride anything.

Every nude frame will be sold with a durable wax coating to protect it. This adds just a couple of grams to the frame, compared to 100g or more of paint. We use a standard 303 Aerospace wax available easily online and through most marine suppliers. It’s super easy to apply - just wipe it on with a clean cloth once or twice a year to provide protection from the elements and keep the bike looking like new.

Of course, we offer full custom paint through the Parlee #PAINTLAB if you’d like to truly customize your Ouray! The beautiful nude carbon provides a perfect foundation for applying tinted clearcoat finishes or much more intricate hand-painted designs.

The Ouray is designed in Beverly, Massachusetts, USA, by Bob Parlee and his team. The frames are made in limited quantities in small batches at a dedicated manufacturing partner in Western Europe. We work directly with them to ensure every Ouray frame is perfect, then bikes are built and, if requested, painted in-house in MA.

Some quick background: The Z4 was our first production bike made outside of our own US factory, manufactured in Asia at a carefully selected factory. For the Ouray, we wanted to raise the bar and deliver an even better product more in line with customers' expectations for our brand.

By producing in Western Europe it allows us to deliver that authentic Parlee product (incredibly high-end frame with perfect layups), but do it at a larger scale than we can do in-house. It also lets us create a premium bike at a more attainable price point.

The Ouray replaces the Altum as our all-around performance bicycle. It slots between the RZ7, our aero race bike, and the Chebacco gravel bike. We also still offer full custom Z-series road and gravel bikes that are handmade in our US HQ.

Parlee bikes are known for their supremely lively performance with sublime ride quality, and the Ouray continues this tradition as our first “all-road” bike. The Ouray is also our first bike with a dramatically sloping top tube. This lets us offer longer seatposts which, combined with a traditional round post, adds more compliance and comfort over mixed surfaces. The seatstays are slightly dropped and the top tube is flatter, which aids in overall vertical compliance for the seat tube and post, further improving comfort. The angular downtube creates a laterally and torsionally stiff lower half of the bike, improving power delivery and pedaling efficiency. By using a monocoque construction, we’re able to perfectly combine these opposing qualities (compliance and stiffness) while minimizing weight and maximizing durability.

The Ouray’s downtube's design is based on the extensive wind tunnel test data used to create the RZ7’s Recurve aero profile, however, the main aero consideration is using a fully integrated stealth cockpit. All brake lines are run through the stem (or bar and stem, depending on cockpit selection), and it's only compatible with electronic drivetrains. This leaves no wires, cables, or hoses visible to the wind.

A key principal for us when we designed the Ouray was to extensively embrace Open Standards. For example: Our headtube uses stainless IS52 upper and lower headset bearings for native compatibility with FSA, ENVE, Deda, Token, and PRO, among others. The open design allows for future compatibility with other component systems. 

We stick with all common standards, including 12mm thru-axles, a round seatpost (31.6mm standard), and T47 threaded bottom brackets. But we do look to the future with our brake mounts…

The front flat-mount brake mounts fit a 160mm rotor standard, or a 180mm rotor by flipping the mounting bracket. More aggressive riders will likely benefit from a larger front rotor. The rear flat-mount brake sticks with the standard 140/160mm rotor mount. 

Parlee ships 160mm rotors front and rear in all complete builds.

The Ouray is offered in five stock sizes. Each frame ships with top caps and spacers to set up in either our standard or tall configurations. This allows a perfect fit for the vast majority of riders.

For clients who need custom geometry, we recommend the Z-Zero RD and XD models. We are not offering custom geometry for this model at this time.

Paint: Full custom paint available through the Parlee #PAINTLAB

Fit options: This includes cockpit selection (crank length, bar width, stem length, seat, seatpost setback, etc.), wheels, tires, drivetrain, and other accessories, making every Ouray unique to its owner.

Kit specs and Framekits: Full range of Shimano and SRAM with 12 different standard build configurations. Frame kits are also available for customers looking for additional customization flexibility

We remain committed to the independent bicycle retailer. All Parlee bikes are sold through our dealer network to ensure every customer receives the best possible experience. All of our dealers are trained to guide the rider through the purchase process, which includes fitting the cockpit dimensions and frame options to them and selecting the best components for their riding style and experience.