Look 765 Optimum+ £2,999 9.31kg
Look’s gravel-leaning endurance bike is an assured if quirky performer but you pay a premium for the brand’s prestige, says Stefan Abram
Of the pantheon of iconic bike brands, there should be little debate as to whether or not Look is a member. From its Piet Mondrian-inspired logo to the invention of clipless pedals and early carbon-fibre frames, Look’s impact on the cycling industry is hard to overstate. The 765 Optimum+ constitutes Look’s endurance platform, designed to offer both comfort and control over long distances. It’s a package that packs quite a number of surprises, so let’s get stuck in.
Frame
Naturally, Look is highly proud of its “30 years of ‘made in France’ carbon expertise”, with the 765 Optimum+ reaping the results. At the rear, flattened, ‘3D Wave seatstays’ are designed to flex and soak up vibrations through the increased vertical compliance while retaining the lateral stiffness of the frame.
Perhaps curiously for an endurance bike, there does seem to be an enduring emphasis on rigidity and power transfer.
The bottom bracket area is so overbuilt it wouldn’t look out of place on an aero bike, with the chunky down tube that it morphs into underlining the comparison.
More unusual, though, is the geometry. At 70.3°, the head angle is notably slack. To put that in context, most endurance bikes in this frame size sit somewhere between 72° and 73° – 70° is still pretty slack even for a gravel bike.
Now, reducing the head angle typically has the effect of making a bike feel more controlled and less twitchy – but the trade-off is that it slows down the steering response.
To compensate for this, pretty much all mountain bikes and many gravel bikes subscribe to the idea of ‘progressive geometry’. This dictates that, once the head angle has been slackened, the stem should be shortened to reduce the steering axis and thereby quicken the steering back up. And so that the contact points all remain in the same place, the top tube should be lengthened to compensate for the shorter stem.
The result should be a bike which is more stable and easier to control but that still retains its liveliness and ability to take sharp corners. But the 765 Optimum+ has not made those compensations. The stem is a pretty traditional 110mm and, with the reach even a little shorter than on most endurance bikes, there’s no scope for reducing that.
Another curiosity is the length of the chainstays; at 420mm they match Canyon’s first gravel bike, the Grail, and contrast with the more typical 415mm length as seen on Cannondale’s Synapse endurance bike. Longer chainstays are another feature which tend to make a bike more stable, while also having the secondary (sometimes primary) benefit of opening up the space to fit in larger tyres.
It’s true that there is an increasing number of endurance bikes that can be found with 420mm chainstays these days, but the comparison with the Grail gravel turns out to be really quite apt.
The 765 Optimum+ uses the same frame as Look’s gravel bikes – albeit without as many mounts. The stack, reach, head angle, BB drop, chainstay length, all the tubing – it’s all identical. With the 765 Optimum+ billed as an endurance bike, that’s the yardstick by which it’s being measured here, but it is still interesting to understand why some choices might have been made – such
“The 765 Optimum+ uses the same frame as Look’s gravel bikes but without as many mounts”
as the tyre clearance for 42mm x 700c or 2.1in x 650b. Creating a new frame platform – and opening moulds – is not cheap, so it seems that Look has opted for a ‘2 for 1’ design, but it comes with some trade-offs.
Specification
The 765 Optimum+ comes with Shimano’s 105 11-speed hydraulic groupset, which has earnt a high reputation for its performance, reliability and reasonable price. The exception is a nonseries crankset, which saves money while adding a little bit to the weight.
The wheels also come courtesy of Shimano, being the unmemorably titled WH RS 171. These are quite shallow and quite heavy, but at least have easy-toservice cup and cone bearings.
The tyres are Hutchinson Fusion 5, which are tubeless-ready and come in a plump 30mm width. The gearing consists of a compact 50/34t crankset and an 11–32t cassette to get you up any climb.
The in-house two-piece bar and stem, along with the round 27.2mm seatpost, are all aluminium – a refreshingly user-friendly choice in the age of integrated components. Unfortunately, the lack of mudguard mounts and a press-fit bottom bracket cuts against this trend but at least the BB the bike ships with is a ‘thread-fit’ so you’ll never have to knock it out the frame.
The ride
With the chunky profiles of the down tube and bottom bracket area, the 765 Optimum+ lives up to its looks in terms of stiffness. And while this might not initially seem a desirable attribute for an endurance bike, if you do all your training efforts on an endurance bike, it’s nice to have one which doesn’t feel like a noodle.
That said, it never felt harsh on the small, high-frequency bumps of coarser tarmac. This may have been partly down to those 3D Wave seatstays, but really, once you have 30mm of rubber and pressures dropped to 50psi, those kind of subtleties are very much muted.
Regarding the handling, which I think is the most interesting aspect of the 765 Optimum+’s ride, on long, straight descents, it proved a complete blast. Feeling so planted and so stable, I never reached a speed where I felt anything less than in complete control.
On the long, sweeping bends of the more major roads as they snake their way down the sides of the larger hills, the 765 Optimum+ proved perfectly adept too.
Less flattering, though, were the tighter, twistier lanes of the small back roads or any sudden, sharp left-hand turns, which felt slow and a little ungainly on the 765 Optimum+.
If you want a bike that rails down the straights and takes its time on the corners, the handling of the Optimum+ will suit you to a T. It’s just worth noting that it comes across very differently to other endurance bikes out there.
It’s also worth noting that at £2,999, the 765 Optimum+ is very expensive for the components it comes with. The new Canyon Endurace has a full 105 groupset and a carbon frame but comes in at £1,699. To get that frame with a 12-speed electronic and hydraulic groupset is still £50 cheaper than the 765 Optimum+.
Of course, there is that element of history and prestige which Look commands. But Bianchi, the oldest bike brand in the world, sells its endurance Infinito XE with a full 105 groupset for less than the Optimum+, at £2,887.
VERDICT
So the 765 Optimum+ is relatively expensive and there are some geometry quirks which make it quite distinct from most other endurance bikes. That said, if you are after an endurance bike which is incredibly stable in a straight line and can fit unusually large tyres, then the Optimum+ does tick those boxes, but it comes with compromises on twisty lanes.
If this is the one for you, you’ll just need to have deep pockets and a particular fondness for French engineering.
“On straight descents it was a blast”
RATING
★★★★★