The concealed cables of the front and rear derailleur emerge from the underside of the lower quarter of the downtube and are routed neatly over the bottom bracket shell before disappearing into the downtube (front mech) and driveside chainstay (rear mech). LOOK have concentrated the breadth around a sizeable 65mm bearing (hence BB65).
The bottom bracket shell is a comparatively svelte 60mm across its underside (compare and contrast with the Trek’s behemoth 90mm BB90). In short, it’s a monocoque frame (or ‘monobloc’ in LOOK-speak), one with a claimed weight of 900 grams. We’ll let you know.Īt the rear of the bike, the seat stays unite in a box section monostay with a hole to mount the rear brake. The chainstays and the seatstays have a single carbon fibre strand running through them similarly, a single carbon strand runs along one side of the top tube, around the head tube, and back along other side to the seat cluster: both examples of the Continuous Fibre Design philosophy that lies at the heart of the 695. The top tube curves slightly, perhaps to add torsional rigidity. Box section tube profiles abound: the top tube, downtube (5cm across from top tube to bottom bracket), the seatstays and the chain stays. The machine was launched ahead of the 2010 Tour, and contains a raft of proprietary innovations, the most striking of which is the Zed2 carbon chainset (more of which later). The LOOK 695SR we have on test continues the company’s penchant for innovation, and could be seen in this year’s Tour beneath Rein Taaramäe and his Cofidis team.
Further innovations followed, notably the introduction of the first carbon frame to the Tour peloton, ridden by Greg LeMond to victory in the 1986 edition. The company’s entry to the cycling market came with their invention of clipless pedals in the early 1980s ( “pédales automatiques”), famously used by Bernard Hinault to win the 1985 Tour de France. LOOK was founded in 1951 as a manufacturer of ski equipment. They were specifically developed for that frame, to make the 695 homogenous, rigid, lightweight, stable and easy to handle.Here’s a first look at the LOOK 695SR, one of a trio of French bikes called in during Le Tour. The new HSC 7 fork, the new Head Fit 3 headset, the C-stem and the E-Post are the other components integrated into the 695 frame. The diagonal tube, saddle tube and stays wrap around the casing and extend without a break in the shape thanks to the CFD concept (Continuous Fiber Design) optimising resistance to effort. To integrate it, the 695 has an oversized bottom bracket (Rolling bearings of 65 mm). It brings a new world record to the weight/rigidity and performance of a frame.įor optimal performance, the 695 is equipped with the best crankset presently available on the market: the ZED 2 crankset. The ZED 2 crankset, the frame’s nerve center, is the culmination of 5 years of research and was tested by athletes and validated at the Beijing Olympics. The 695 goes through the CFD (Continuous Fiber Design) process: where the shape of the tubes are studied so that the carbon fibers work along the best axis, optimizing their mechanical performance. The Look 695 is a frame offering unequalled cycling precision thanks to the integration of the stem, the headset, the fork and an exceptional performance thanks to its crankset.
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