Look 785 Huez RS
Look’s range was lacking a super-light climber’s bike. Not any more
Bikes have changed in many different and wonderful ways over the past decade. We’ve seen the emergence of suspension, aerodynamic integration and otherworldly material stiffness. For most people, though, it’s that giddy feeling achieved when lifting a bike off the ground that still makes all the difference.
Everyone loves a light bike. It has taken a while for French brand Look to acknowledge that fact, but the 785 now fills that ultra-lightweight shaped hole.
The 785 Huez RS isn’t just a new product, it represents a whole new direction for Look, which has appointed a new company president and acquired wheel brand Corima. Unsurprisingly this build is equipped with Corima’s freakishly light and scantily spoked Winium+ MCC tubular wheelset. It’s the perfect complement to the lightest frameset Look has ever created, which comes in at 730g for the frame and only 280g for the fork, and together brings the build in at just 6.02kg.
Look stresses that it could have gone even lighter, but chose to prioritise function, performance and safety. ‘It’s not the lightest frame on the market, but it’s very important to Look that the reliability of this product is really, really high,’ says Look product manager Fred Caron.
Look has rethought the shaping of its tubes for the 785 frame, in what Caron calls Optimised Inertia Section. For instance, the down tube changes from a blunt squaredoff profile at the bottom bracket to a more traditional rounded shape at the head tube. Look claims this makes for naturally strong shapes, allowing it to use incredibly thin walls for the carbon tubes.
The benefit of that, we hope, is a very low overall weight without any sacrifice in terms of stiffness. For some, the new frameset is also a welcome arrival in terms of appearance, with its conventional looks appealing to traditional riders more than the aggressive silhouettes of bikes such as the Look 795. It’s all for naught, however, unless the ride matches the aesthetics.
My initial assessment was that the 785 was the very definition of a climber’s bike
As for the low weight, I find it hard to get excited by a reduction of 10g or 20g off the weight of a frame. In my experience, once frames drop below the 800g mark they are generally indistinguishable from each other in terms of weight. At the same time, for the benefit of the weight weenies it’s worth pointing out that the Merida Scultura, Trek Émonda and Fuji SL frames all dip below the Look 785, and the S-works Tarmac comes within 5g of it despite considerably more aerodynamic merits. Look says that this is all down to safety concerns. ‘All of Look’s bicycles are made to not only meet the European testing standards, but exceed them by 60%,’ says Caron.
Huez on the Alpe
My first test of the 785 Huez was, appropriately enough, on Alpe d’huez. I set out to tackle the classic climb in under an hour, and aboard the 785 I felt like I had my best shot for some time. The light weight and rigid power delivery meant that I could settle confidently into a strong rhythm and I was happy to come home in 58 minutes. My initial assessment of the 785 was that it was the dictionary definition of a climber’s bike.
On descents the Look 785 also proved to be very accomplished. I rode it at the 2017 Marmotte sportive in the Alps and I strangely found myself making better progress through the field on the descents than on the climbs. The frame does a good job of filtering the worst bumps of the road – delivering the thud through the frame but not seeming to conduct it to the saddle or handlebars. The short head tube also helped me to throw the bike into corners while remaining in a fast, low tuck.
That said, I rode the 785 in quick succession with the
Cervélo R5, which was a little weightier but seemed to offer more precision when descending and cornering. That may be down to the feathery Look build sacrificing a little stability – super-light bikes can feel a little less planted – but also perhaps the Cervélo was ever so slightly stiffer and better connected from front to rear. Hence it felt sharper entering into a corner.
As a climber, the 785 Huez feels like it was born to stretch its legs on idyllic Alpine mountainsides. Back on flatter home ground, though, there are niggles.
Back to reality
For me, weekend rides in Surrey and Berkshire are filled with long, flat sections and short, steep climbs, and signpost sprints are more common than Alpine adventures. Weight is always an issue, but I appreciate a bike that combines low weight with speed and comfort.
The 785 was indeed comfortable, but part of that was down to its tubular wheelset. Not wanting to risk puncturing on tubs, these were quickly swapped out, which harshened the ride slightly and increased the weight. On a positive note, while the bike doesn’t advertise its tyre compatibility, there is plenty of clearance for 28mm tyres and possibly even bigger.
In terms of flat-out speed, the 785’s aerodynamics don’t offer much assistance compared to the 795. Look’s one-piece ZED 2 crankset does well to maintain the stiffness of power delivery, and I love the ability to change crank-length by rotating the pedal thread insert. I wasn’t sure how effective the rest of the frame was for the very top-end power, though. On long, steady climbs it delivered power efficiently but it seemed to flex slightly during flat-out sprints. That also meant it lacked some of the striking accelerating impulse that super-stiff bikes offer from a standing start.
The harshest criticism I could level at the Look 785 is that a few days after riding it, I found myself struggling to describe, or even remember, its ride quality. It simply didn’t astound me. There’s no doubting the 785 is supremely light, elegant and performs well against an incline but it’s lacking one thing, a touch of awe. That may be asking a lot, but in the lightweight racing bike sector, the bar is set incredibly high.