{"id":17674,"date":"2022-10-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=17674"},"modified":"2022-10-06T13:28:22","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T11:28:22","slug":"brand-visits-parcours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/2022\/10\/04\/brand-visits-parcours\/","title":{"rendered":"Brand visits: Parcours"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

AFFORDABLE SPEED<\/h2>\n\n

PARCOURS HAS FORGED A REPUTATION FOR MOLDING CARBON WHEELS, BASED ON RESEARCH AND TESTING, WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK. WE HIT THE ROAD TO UNCOVER HOW THEY DO IT\u2026 <\/p>\n\n

WORDS JAMES WITTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\n\n

THIS is one of my three laptops\u2026 and here\u2019s a bag of sensors\u2026 and see those oscillations? That is what I am interested in.\u201d Steve Faulkner, sport scientist and senior lecturer in science and technology at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), has just popped into Parcours\u2019 chipboarddecorated office-cum-warehouse and he\u2019s in his element. He\u2019s not the only one. Dov Tate, owner of the UK wheel brand, is hypnotised by Faulkner\u2019s data-rich spell. \u201cUltimately, we\u2019re both engineers,\u201d smiles Tate, \u201calbeit Steve\u2019s a worldclass one. He\u2019s helped us deliver what we feel will be a gamechanger for us and triathletes\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

LAUNCHING IN KONA <\/h4>\n\n

We\u2019re in Puttenham, near Guildford, to find out more about Parcours, one of the UK\u2019s most progressive and fastest-growing wheel brands. The timing\u2019s perfect as not only is Midlandsbased Faulkner in the area visiting his father-inlaw, but Tate, plus marketing guru Amy Marks, once of Canyon and M&C Saatchi, are in particularly exuberant fettle ahead of the company\u2019s latest wheel launch. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re heading to Kona to launch an update of our Chrono wheelset, plus 83mm Chrono Max and disc wheel,\u201d reveals Tate. \u201cAs for Steve, he\u2019s worked with us for a few years as we have a technical partnership with NTU. We were outdoor testing earlier in the week, using some of the sensors Steve\u2019s brought with him. It\u2019s all good.\u201d One of those sensors delivered from Steve\u2019s carrier bag is an ultrasonic model that calculates wind speed and direction that attaches to a bike via 3D-printed mounts fitted to the end of the thru-axle. It\u2019s a device that gives a clue to what\u2019s arguably Parcours\u2019 biggest venture yet. You see, when Tate says \u201cupdate\u201d of the Chronos, it\u2019s more like an overhaul. Marks, who divides her time between Parcours and road racing for Team <\/span>Brother UK \u2013 LDN, hands me the front wheel. I rotate the wheel and observe. I do the same with the rear wheel. Even this short-sighted writer can observe the difference.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u201cFROM SPEAKING TO ATHLETES AND OUR OWN TESTING, WE\u2019RE BEGINNING TO SEE THAT IN MANY CONDITIONS, A REAR DISC IS MORE STABLE THAN A DEEP-RIMMED WHEEL\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll notice that the front wheel is a little more U-shaped and blunter, whereas the rear\u2019s a sharper, V-shaped profile,\u201d Tate explains. \u201cThat\u2019s the end result of a great deal of CFD (computational fluid dynamics) work and testing with those sensors, which highlighted the difference in yaw angles at the front wheel compared to the rear wheel. At the front you\u2019re looking at up to 7\u00b0 whereas you can see from this chart that the frequency peak\u2019s different at the rear, so you\u2019re more likely to see lower yaw angles.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Parcours love a chart. And they love a study. They pride themselves on producing white papers to document the rationale behind their wheelsets, which sit within their website. In this case it shows that this disparity in wheel profiles results in a more stable, better-handling set-up that Tate says is around 10-15% greater than the previous incarnation of the Chronos. This is helped by reducing the rim depth slightly from 77mm to 68.8mm at the front and from 86mm to 75.7mm at the rear, which, Tate continues, is actually marginally faster than before. <\/p>\n\n

Tate concedes a couple of other wheel manufacturers are similar in \u201cdesign language\u201d but don\u2019t explicitly say why there are different rim profiles. Parcours, he affirms, are upfront and want to educate the end user. They\u2019re doing so at their famed impressive value, with the new Chrono wheelset costing \u00a31,199. The Chrono Max is \u00a3600, while the team\u2019s new disc wheel will set you back \u00a31,049. Again, more affordable than the high-end, \u00a33,000-plus competition from the likes of Enve and Lightweight. <\/p>\n\n

\u2018But discs are banned at several races including Ironman Hawaii,\u2019 you bemoan. \u2018Will I get enough use?\u2019 You will if Tate and Faulkner have their way. The team are heading over to Kona to not only parade their new goods but also for testing purposes. \u201cFrom speaking to athletes and our own testing, we\u2019re beginning to see that in many conditions and set-ups, a rear disc is actually more stable and comfortable than a deep-rimmed wheel,\u201d Tate reveals. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
The new Chrono rear wheel drops from 86mm to 75.7mm deep but is reportedly quicker <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

When he says more stable, we\u2019re actually talking less twitchy at the front, even in what the team call those \u2018Oh shit moments\u2019, like a sidewind gusting through a gap in hedgerow. \u201cThree of our sponsored athletes \u2013 Kyle Smith, Laura Siddall and Fenella Langridge \u2013 raced on discs at the St. George Ironman World Championships in May, using 30mm-wide tyres pumped to just 50psi and all finished in the top-15. They said how stable and comfortable they were, both on the bike and then hitting the run.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Tate has a glint in his eye at the thought of presenting the case for discs to be removed from Kona\u2019s banned list, as well as not being adverse to the reaction of the click-bait-friendly story. <\/p>\n\n

LONDON LIFE <\/h4>\n\n

Parcours has come a long way in a short time. They launched at the London Triathlon in 2016, which was four years after Tate began turning around the excess of London life. \u201cI studied engineering at Oxford University and did what many engineers did back then, which was to go and work in the city. Engineering and Oxford was a good recruiting ground as we\u2019re good at mathematics and, in general, pretty driven. Mind you, it was an inauspicious start as the day I started working for an investment bank [15 September 2008] was the day the Lehman Brothers went under. I declined a job from them, actually, and thank god I did. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d put on a little weight, was working long hours and generally not leading a healthy lifestyle when 2012 came around. The Olympic Games, Wiggo-mania and all that. I bought a bike, enjoyed riding and then started triathlon the following year. My equipment grew \u2013 as it does for all of us \u2013 and I came to the realisation at a race at Dorney, where I\u2019d punctured, that the majority of upgraded, deep-rim wheels were well over \u00a32,000. That was more than my bike was worth. I dug a little deeper and found cheaper carbon wheels but only if you went through eBay. However, these nameless wheels had no data behind them, no rigour. I thought, there\u2019s got to be a middle ground here. But there wasn\u2019t. That\u2019s when I thought, how hard can it be? So I set out to create a wheelset with me as the first customer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
New Zealand\u2019s Kyle Smith is a Parcours athlete. He led in St. George before finishing a still-impressive 11th <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

The thought coincided with a real desire to avoid spending his 30s in investment banking. Soon, Tate had prototypes made up from open molds and was flying over to the United States for testing in the famous A2 Wind Tunnel in North Carolina. He was pleased with the results; he also came away with many questions still to answer. What\u2019s the best lay-up of carbon weave? How long should the cure time be? What resin will be used? What bearings to use? What spokes? That\u2019s when Tate went on a two-week fact-finding mission to China, visiting factories before settling on one in Shenzhen. After much back and forth between Tate \u2013 owner, designer and engineer \u2013 and the Far East experts, Parcours was born, launching three wheelsets in London: the Grimpeur, Passista and Chrono. \u201cWe had a stand there, did a bit of publicity, but it was kind of very much bootstrap PR. It was actually the following February, when <\/span>220 <\/em>awarded the Chrono wheelset the editor\u2019s choice award, that things started to take off.\u201d The power we wield!<\/span><\/p>\n\n

RAPID PROGRESS <\/h4>\n\n

Back then, Tate was working out of his flat in Clapham and storing stock in a Big Yellow Storage unit. But the foundations had been laid. \u201cOver the next couple of years, our wheelsets really progressed. The analogy that I\u2019ve used a few times is, it became a bit like the process of buying a suit. You start off by buying an off-the-peg number from M&S, which was pre-manufactured for a certain fit. It\u2019s kind of the open mold of shopping. Then, as I was able to invest in growth from sales, we were able to buy an off-the-peg suit but take it to a tailor and be measured up. In other words, we can start to tailor the rim designs, so introducing tubeless compatibility, tweaking hub specs, changing the carbon layering\u2026 taking the existing design but making it better. Then, by 2018 as a company we were about the bespoke suit. All our intellectual property, our designs, our lay-ups, it was all unique to us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Parcours continue to use the same manufacturing outfit in Shenzhen, working with a team who, though not employed by the UK outfit, are dedicated to them, including a project engineer who Parcours will work with using CFD software SimScale. But now the set-up is specific to them. It\u2019s an operation that\u2019s smoothed out over the years but raises the admittedly lazy question of, why not manufacture as well as design in the UK? <\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

\u201cUltimately, it\u2019s down to quality and quantity,\u201d Tate says. \u201cUK carbon engineering is great but it\u2019s more set up for prototyping, which works for Formula One when you\u2019re making three units but not so great if you\u2019re looking to produce 3,000 units. China\u2019s wheel-builders are also phenomenal. We have a great wheel-builder here but only one \u2013 they have many.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

\u201cUK CARBON ENGINEERING IS GREAT BUT IT\u2019S MORE SET UP FOR PROTOTYPING WHEN YOU\u2019RE MAKING THREE UNITS RATHER THAN 3,000\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Parcours\u2019 sole UK wheel-builder, Skye Sandison, is a bit of a success story in her own right, earning a permanent skilled role after joining the team through the government\u2019s Kickstart Scheme. Tate\u2019s only other UK colleague is Marks in marketing, meaning a domestic outfit of just three. That could grow soon, however, after receiving a \u00a3100,000 expansion loan from the Enterprise M3 Funding Escalator. That accelerated the development and launch of the new wheels as cashflow\u2019s always the main problem of a small business like Parcours and will help further growth.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

QUICK FACTS <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

01| CHRONO WHEELSET <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Price: \u00a31,199 <\/strong>
\u2022 Depth: 68.6mm front, 75.7mm rear <\/strong>
\u2022 Max rim width: 32mm front, 30.5mm rear <\/strong>
\u2022 Internal rim width: 22.5mm <\/strong>
\u2022 Aero optimised for a 28mm tyre <\/strong>
\u2022 15% more stable than previous generation wheelset, while maintaining aero performance <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

02| CHRONO MAX FRONT WHEEL <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Price: \u00a3600 <\/strong>
\u2022 Depth: 83.6mm depth <\/strong>
\u2022 Max rim width: 32mm <\/strong>
\u2022 Internal rim width: 22.5mm internal <\/strong>
\u2022 Aero optimised for a 28mm tyre <\/strong>
\u2022 Maintains handling stability from previous generation wheel but saves 4W when fitted with a 28mm tyre <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

03| DISC WHEEL <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Price: \u00a31,049 (\u00a31,599 with Chrono front; \u00a31,649 with Chrono Max front) <\/strong>
\u2022 Internal rim width: 22.5mm <\/strong>
\u2022 First rear disc wheel to be truly optimised for running with a wider tyre <\/strong>
\u2022 Agnostic of tyre width up to 30mm \u2013 no aero penalty <\/strong>
\u2022 Disc-brake specific design from day one <\/strong>
\u2022 Approx 120g lighter than previous generation <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

And that\u2019s despite the issues faced due to Covid, which means Tate hasn\u2019t been able to physically visit China for over two years because of strict quarantine rules. The impact of Covid\u2019s also perversely meant a swifter turnaround. \u201cBefore Covid struck, shipping would cost you between $15 and $18 per wheelset. It\u2019d take 40 to 50 days to arrive in the UK. Now, that can easily reach $80 per wheelset because of container costs. That\u2019s why we now ship by air. It\u2019s only around $20 more and is much quicker. In fact, the airfreight service we use is quite an interesting one as we use a broker who\u2019ll sort last-minute availability. It\u2019ll be a certain price if it can be sorted in seven days, a different price at 14 days\u2026 it\u2019s a really useful system.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Above left: Steve Faulkner and Amy Marks in wheel-testing mode <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

And it\u2019s a system that\u2019s helping many of the world\u2019s triathletes and Ironman athletes ride ever faster and, say Parcours, handle better whatever the conditions. Tate says the split of roadies and triathletes is around 50\/50, albeit this skewed to the former during Covid as triathlon\u2019s such an event-driven sport. Tate predicts 2023 will be a bumper year for triathlon with an increasing amount of people more confident that events will take place. As for Parcours\u2019 plans beyond 2023, they float around the idea of taking things to the global next level by sponsoring a World Tour cycling team, albeit that\u2019d need bigger budgets and a bigger team to \u201cmaximise the collaboration\u201d. For now, they\u2019re happy to disrupt the industry with their affordable, high-tech carbon wheels and disrupt the masters of Kona with their disc-wheel game-changing data.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

JARGON BUSTER<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

CFD <\/strong>
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is the use of applied mathematics, physics and computational software to visualise how a gas or liquid flows past and affects objects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

YAW ANGLES <\/strong>
The direction the wind moves in relation to the direction the wheel moves. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFFORDABLE SPEED PARCOURS HAS FORGED A REPUTATION FOR MOLDING CARBON WHEELS, BASED ON RESEARCH AND TESTING, WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK. WE HIT THE ROAD TO UNCOVER HOW THEY DO IT\u2026 WORDS JAMES WITTS THIS is one of my three laptops\u2026 and here\u2019s a bag of sensors\u2026 and see those oscillations? That is what I am […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":18170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"62","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"62","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_62-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_62-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"November-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"November-2022","purple_external_id":"November-2022-62-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"November-2022-62-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000083695||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000083695||","purple_android_product":"com.im.220mag.409","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.220mag.409","purple_ios_product":"com.im.220mag.409","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.220mag.409","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"69718c89-6ce1-4a00-8e50-78dba8209b85","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-10-06T10:26:37Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"cb84d003-8398-40e0-8bf4-f6dee9f052fa","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-10-06T11:28:31Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAg==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Ay4TQA4OYQOCL9Pbe6fBS-g","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[20],"tags":[63],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/Digi_0023_48_Parcours.png","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"11","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/Digi_0023_48_Parcours.png",500,500,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/Digi_0023_48_Parcours-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/Digi_0023_48_Parcours-300x300.png",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/Digi_0023_48_Parcours.png",500,500,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/Digi_0023_48_Parcours.png",500,500,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/Digi_0023_48_Parcours.png",500,500,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/Digi_0023_48_Parcours.png",500,500,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"AFFORDABLE SPEED PARCOURS HAS FORGED A REPUTATION FOR MOLDING CARBON WHEELS, BASED ON RESEARCH AND TESTING, WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK. WE HIT THE ROAD TO UNCOVER HOW THEY DO IT\u2026 WORDS JAMES WITTS THIS is one of my three laptops\u2026 and here\u2019s a bag of sensors\u2026 and see those oscillations? That is what I am…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17674"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18294,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17674\/revisions\/18294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}