Everything is in proportion and the slender lines speak to light weight and performance.īut while it’s desirable and interesting, I wouldn’t even place the Look in the same category as modern carbon because they have so little in common with one another. Leaving aside its historical significance, the Look is just pretty. Greg LeMond won his first TdF using the KG86.Ī post shared by LOOK CLUB SAKO on at 12:51am PST The frame tubes were bonded into aluminium lugs in a way reminiscent of the first use of aluminium tubes in cycling. The tubes were made by a French company TVT, who combined Kevlar with layers of woven carbon fibre. The KG86 LOOK were the first company to produce a frame with carbon fibre tubes designed for cycle racing. The first ever successful carbon fibre frame. Is the 5500 cool? With appreciation of what it represents, I think it is, but I’d also say it lacks the elegance of truly classic machines - think Eroica-style steel - and looks ungainly and crude compared to current bikes. Truncated aerofoils and integrated-everything were still decades away at this point, so cables are fully external and these bikes were typically fitted with lightweight, ultra-low-profile alloy wheels, the antithesis of deep-section carbon. It’s very noticeable how much more metal is on display on bikes of this era - the main frame is carbon, but there are metal dropouts, headset cups, bottom bracket inserts, cable guides and more. The main frame tubes appear oddly skinny next to an enormously chunky seat cluster and head tube, while the 1in quill stem, external headset and slim fork legs look positively emaciated. To modern eyes, these bikes look utterly dated.
The original 5500’s frame was claimed to weigh just 2.44lbs (1,107g), which must have been astonishing at a time when many riders were still on steel.
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