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TECH NEWS

Pro team bike: Bretagne-Séché Environnement's Look 795

French team that rode in last year’s Tour to get Look’s newest race bike

Team Bretagne-Séché Environnement, who raced the Tour de France for the first time last year, will ride Look 795s from the start of the 2015 race season.

Bretagne-Séché Environnement, who were already using Look pedals, were riding Kemo bikes last year while Cofidis were on Looks. Cofidis have now switched to Orbea. It’s a right old merry-go-round.

Look have been a pro peloton regular for 30 years and this deal will last until at least the end of 2016.

Bretagne-Séché Environnement (the UCI team code is BSE, which doesn’t have the best connotations over here) is a Pro Continental team based in France, and they got a wildcard entry into the 2014 Tour.

The Look 795 was launched last summer with 11 patents, the French brand describing it as “the best aero road bike ever made”.

They would say that, of course.

It is designed using NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) airfoil profiles for the head tube, down tube, seat tube, extended seatmast, seatstays and fork legs to reduce drag. The seat tube is cutaway around the leading edge of the rear wheel to manage airflow in that area.

The Aerostem monobloc carbon stem integrates with the frame, sitting in a notch that’s cutaway at the top of the head tube, a rubber shield filling the gaps (this pic is from last year's launch). There’s hardly any external cabling to disturb the airflow – just a small amount between the end of the handlebar tape and the top of the head tube, where the cables burrow inside. The Aerostem is made from hollow high-modulus carbon fibre with hidden stainless steel clamp screws.

It’s fair to say that the look of the front end divides opinion, but all that integration is designed with performance rather than aesthetics in mind.

The version of the 795 that’s pictured, the 795 Aerolight, has Look’s own front brake integrated into the fork and a rear brake mounted behind the bottom bracket, the idea being to reduce drag. We were told at the launch last year, though, that pro teams would train on that version and race on the 795 Light with conventional brakes to make for easier wheel changes.

The 795 Light is the version that we took on a brief First Ride at last year’s Eurobike. 

Look have patented the 795’s cable routing, the cables head inside the frame right at the top of the head tube with a guide to take them around the fork steerer.

The 795 also gets a new version of Look’s E-Post – the E-Post 2, appropriately enough – that incorporates an elastomer to dampen road vibration.

The wheels on the bike pictured at the top of the page are Lightweights although they won’t be used by Bretagne-Séché Environnement. Last year the team used Vision Metron 55 wheels and FSA’s chainset along with Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupsets and Selle Italia saddles.

Team Bretagne-Séché Environnement will start the season on the San Luis Tour, in Argentina, from 18th January.

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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10 comments

Avatar
mrmo | 9 years ago
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Those two bikes are very different sizes, you will expect a tiny bike, which the top one is, to have a very short head tube.

But yes it still does look tall at the front end, just not as much as those pictures imply

//3.bp.blogspot.com/-qCoTTEWolHg/TbB2R_0EzFI/AAAAAAAAAHk/xTyRyCVdwRo/s1600/Cancellara-E3-Win.jpg)

i think this is a more appropriate size for the comparison.

and if you look at the bottom of the drops to tyre distance, it isn't that different

Avatar
matthewn5 | 9 years ago
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That's miles too high at the front.

Compare the Orbea Orca being used by Cofidis this year, it's got about 80mm head tube! The drops are level with the top of the tyre, even with compact bars. This is low:

//road.cc/sites/default/files/imagecache/galleria_900_nocrop/images/2015%20WorldTour%20bikes:%20Cofidis%E2%80%99s%20Orbea%20Orca/Cofidis%20Orbea%20Orca%202015%2010.jpg)

This isn't:

//road.cc/sites/default/files/imagecache/preview_500/images/Eurobike%202014%20Demo%20day%20part%202/Look%20795%20-%20full%20bike.jpg)

My guess is the team will use a custom version. Some makers do that for their racing teams.

Avatar
Quince | 9 years ago
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It looks like a cat on a stool that's struggling to play a piano that's slightly too far away.

But maybe that's the true meaning of speed. 0.o

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pedalpowerDC | 9 years ago
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Look is going to have to make a bike with a shorter head tube for the pros. That thing is gigantic!

Avatar
ajmarshal1 replied to pedalpowerDC | 9 years ago
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pedalpowerDC wrote:

Look is going to have to make a bike with a shorter head tube for the pros. That thing is gigantic!

That's the point of the integrated stem, look at the saddle to bar drop. Plenty low enough.

Avatar
700c replied to ajmarshal1 | 9 years ago
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ajmarshal1 wrote:
pedalpowerDC wrote:

Look is going to have to make a bike with a shorter head tube for the pros. That thing is gigantic!

That's the point of the integrated stem, look at the saddle to bar drop. Plenty low enough.

+1

Some people have missed the obvious with this integrated stem design - which puts the top of the stem level with the top tube, thereby requiring more head tube.

it's like comparing apples with oranges..

..and as for comparing a tiny bike with a large one..!

Avatar
aIex | 9 years ago
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Fastest bike in the peloton?

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mike_ibcyclist | 9 years ago
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I wonder how this "Look" will be rated by mechanics on the pro tour? I like the way it looks, but just wonder if it would be a pain in the arse to service.

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Chasseur Patate | 9 years ago
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Not everyone's cup of tea and wasn't mine at first, but: The more I look at it, the more I start to like it.....

Avatar
Poptart242 replied to Chasseur Patate | 9 years ago
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Chasseur Patate wrote:

Not everyone's cup of tea and wasn't mine at first, but: The more I look at it, the more I start to like it.....

+1 - there's one of the 795 lights in my LBS in the hi vis paint job. I wasn't keen when looking online but it's actually pretty cool looking in real life.

Bizarre to look down at from the saddle though, it would take some getting used to.

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