The Cybertruck Parlee: A Taos Built for the Desert and a Dose of Humor

I got on the Cybertruck waiting list the day it was announced — November 2019, a hundred dollars on a whim with my business partner Andrew. Then I forgot about it for years. When the opportunity to actually take delivery finally came around, we said yes. And somewhere in that process, an idea that had no business working started to take shape.

You see people match their bikes to their supercars all the time — the Porsche builds, the Ferrari builds, the Lamborghini paint jobs. And they’re beautiful. But I’d rather do something a little more unexpected. Also, I don’t own an Italian supercar! So when we sat down with Parlee to spec a new Taos gravel bike, the brief was simple: make it look like stainless steel.

That sentence alone has caused some confusion. I had a gentleman in the shop just last week who asked me, in all seriousness, when Parlee started making metal frames. I had to laugh. The paint job is that convincing. We went even further with the details — I found the Cybertruck font on Etsy, had the Parlee logo re-set in it, and picked up a logo kit so we could put little Cybertruck inlays on the fork and the rear stays. It’s ridiculous in the best possible way.

But underneath the fun is a very serious gravel bike. The Taos has always been one of my favorite platforms — the geometry is confidence-inspiring, with enough slack to feel planted on rough, rocky desert descents, but still lively enough to make a long day in the saddle genuinely fun. I ran it on SRAM RED XPLR 1×13, which gives you a staggering range from a single chainring, paired with a Quarq power meter to keep things honest.

The cockpit is all ENVE: an Aero stem at 80mm and their All Road bar at 40 centimeters with 76mm of reach, keeping the front end short and comfortable on a frame that already runs a fairly compact geometry.