Look is marketing its 675 as a racing or sportive bike. But the feel and ride quality leaves it up there with any superbike.
By Myles McCorry
At first glance, you will be intrigued by the stem sweeping into the top tube on Look’s 675. You’ll either love it or hate it. I wasn't convinced by the styling.
It looked like they’d drawn the bike first and then made a frame to suit the sketch. But out of the box and built it’s not often you really want to ride a bike and I wanted to ride this one.
Glancing up at the head tube and the cloudless sky, I was pushing the pedals with excitement.
After only a rapid five minutes in the saddle I had made up my mind that this was a real racing bike. There are no hidden v brakes or the mysteriously assembled cranks of its flagship brother the 695. This is a racing bike.
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With a tall front end, Look is marketing it as a racing/sportive machine. But the feel and ride quality leaves it level with any superbike.
Ignoring the daft stem and smitten by the lovely finish; it is meant for racing. Partnered with Shimano’s workhorse Ultegra 11 groupset, this just wants to go fast.
Unconvinced by the styling on first impression, the 675 scored highly on every other scale and very much converted our reviewer. The bottom bracket is bb86.5.
If you ride a bike even once a week you get pretty good at handling. A few kilometres into the spin and I felt I just got better.
Zipping through the country lanes, it immediately had the lovely balance of being both stable and responsive.
The head angle of any frame is usually responsible for the handling or the feel of the bike and the 675 was nothing new or different, at 73 degrees.
The wheelbase was nearly standard; too short on some bikes and you need to steer rather than lean. This seemed just right.
For the second outing I decided to put a longer stem on to match my own bike's position.
The Look’s own system was my only real niggle with this bike; pointing up in the air like the bonnet of an old Citroen.
The A-head stem system benefits from the bearings being preset and not tensioned by the A-head stem top nut.
On swapping stems I found a half-moon spacer is housed in the handlebar clamp to adjust the reach by 30 degrees.
The A-head system also benefits from the bearings being preset and not tensioned by the A-head stem top nut, but held in place and sealed in factory.
It felt smooth and solid. Yes, you can only use Look’s own stem, but although it appeared to be a chunk of cast iron the Look stem weighed in at under 230 grams for a 12 cm and matches the fork arc perfectly.
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The 675 rides like an evolution of the old 531 steel framesets. You don’t really notice it. Not too stiff to bounce you about, not too light to skip when you power out of a corner.
It’s just there; trust and forget about it and leave the mind to watch the attacks and avoid the potholes.
It is more a tool for cycle racing than something to show your mates.
Partnered with Shimano’s workhorse Ultegra 11 groupset, this just wants to go fast.
For my final ride on it, I changed the deep section Detec wheels for a pair of hand built 32s because it was blowing a gale. But I missed the nice whizz of the carbon rims; another feature with this bike that I’m sold on.
I can’t find a flaw in this machine. And if you have 20mm of spacers under your own stem, I doubt you would find one either.
I would dump the compact chain set and take time with the dealer getting the stem selection correct.
For all but the longest hamstrings, with the daft stem you could find a good position on the 675.
Look makes this in entirety. It is not a guy in Wisconsin sending an email to Taiwan for a head tube that a computer has told him is the nearest you can get to what you’re looking for.
This is some French guy walking downstairs in the factory to see his design being put together. I like that.
The deep section Detec wheels were missed the minute our review changed them for a pair of hand built 32s because it was blowing a gale.
The bottom bracket is bb86.5, which is hopefully becoming a standard and has more bearing surface contact than the bb30 so should creak less.
Shimano cranks need no plastic adapters and the assembly is solid.
If you plan to race and want a bike, go to the Credit Union and ask for €2,200 for frame only. And if they say no, then show them this picture and tell them you need it.
Go for the black/nude carbon easy-to-clean, which also hides marks and scores from racing.
This is a solid, no nonsense racing bike that will last.
- Against: 400grams heavier than a similar package and the Fizik Ardea saddle belongs on a 1920s railway carriage.
- Weight: 7.98kgs as tested.
- Price: €3,900 euro as pictured
- Our score: 9/10
Although it appeared to be a chunk of cast iron, the Look stem weighed in under 230 grams for a 12cm and matches the fork arc perfectly.
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