NEW BIKES
£3799.99 > Looks can be deceiving
Look 765HM Ultegra Di2, Sonnet Race 1, Sven Cycles Pathfinder, Merida Scultura 5000, Hoy Alto Irpavi .002 and Tifosi Cavazzo Carbon.
With notable firsts in carbon bike frame history to its name, Look can rightfully boast the richest composite pedigree. The first Look carbon frame – the KG86, using bonded carbon/Kevlar tubes made by French company TVT - helped Greg LeMond to his epic first Tour de France win in 1986, and in 1988, Look built the KG96 frame completely from carbon fibre. Carbon frame technology has progressed significantly over the last 30 years, but Look continues to produce and build innovative bikes.
Since learning how to build frames stiff enough to satisfy the brawniest of riders, manufacturers have concentrated on how to increase ride comfort without affecting performance. Look’s solution with the 765HM is to sandwich a layer of flax linen fibres between its high modulus carbon fibre sheets, calling the resultant material Carboflax. It was a technique Belgian company, Museeuw Bikes featured back in 2009. Here it’s used in the fork and chainstays to absorb road vibrations, and prevent them from reaching the rider, offsetting the ultra-stiff carbon that gives the frame its performance.
Recent Look frames have utilised a lengthy head-tube, and integrated it in to a
sleek design for maximal front end stiffness. Aimed at fast endurance riders, the 765HM’s head-tube in our large size is a hard-to-ignore 206.3mm long, unsurprisingly matched to a generous stack height of 602mm [vertical distance from the centre of the bottom bracket to the centre of the head-tube]. The head angle is an easy-going 72 degrees, and the effective top-tube 569.1mm long, creating an unaggressive riding position. While everything’s in proportion, the larger frame does have an unwieldy stance alongside bikes with racier intentions.
But that’s exactly the point, and despite appearances, the feel is more race bike than five-bar gate. Yes, the position is less stretched and a little more upright, but with the stem slammed and riding on the drops, we didn’t feel we were catching the wind much more than usual. As well as the Carboflax construction, the seatstays curve inwards, and the frame’s semi-compact design with slightly lowered seatstays leaves plenty of the 27.2mm seatpost free to flex, which all adds to the 765HM’s impressive ride quality. All those years of carbon craftsmanship are obvious in the frame’s refinement and responsiveness.
Even with average Mavic Ksyrium wheels, fitted with 25mm Continental Ultra Sport tyres, the 765HM has a willing kick, and climbs efficiently. Choppy, broken tarmac and sudden direction changes can’t upset the bike’s composure, and its handling is unerringly precise. Look claims a medium frame weighs 990g, with a 330g fork, but then there’s quite a lot of it, and this isn’t designed as a headbanging pro racer. The overall 7.8kg weight is never intrusive and, from the saddle, impossible to feel.
For the 765HM, comfort is key, and there it succeeds, with a position that reduces pressure on the comfortable Q-Bik saddle, and through your wrists and hands on the classy Zipp handlebar.
Shimano Ultegra Di2 ensures slick, rapid shifts, but does account for a chunk of the budget. Much as we appreciate its efficiency, the frame isn’t ideally configured for Di2, with the wire exiting the junction box beneath the stem and partly following a brake cable, before continuing some distance alone towards the down-tube port. With ever-neater cable solutions appearing, this arrangement smacks more of an afterthought.
Overall though, Look’s 765HM has the response and feel of a race bike with a position made for daylong comfort. Unfortunately, that classy frame costs, as does electronic shifting, seemingly at the expense of better wheels in this case, it just depends where your priorities lie.