Look’s past efforts at integration have yielded some sleek looking road bikes while eliciting polarizing opinions. If you’ve lauded the design, you’re in luck. If you fall into the “don’t like it” camp, look away now ’cause boy oh boy does the new Look 795 Aerolight road bike push things farther than ever.
Combining the lightweight design and integrated e-Post and front brake of the 695 Aerolight with the sleeker 675’s front end, plus new NACA tube profiles and a healthy dose of weight savings, the new 795 Aerolight raises the model nomenclature by 100 to introduce “the best aero road bike ever made.”
It even gets their 320g ZED 2 one-piece crankset, whose weight includes the bottom bracket, plus a new fork and updated version of the e-Post. Video and much more below…
There’s a lot going on with the frame to optimized aerodynamics. At the top level, Look used proven NACA foil shapes to guide the air smoothly around the fork’s blades and every tube but the chainstays.
From there, they brought all the wires and cables inside the frame as much as possible. They enter through the head tube and hide all the way until their end component. The front brake cable runs straight through the steerer tube and actuates the break from within the fork’s crown.
The e-Post 2 uses the same vibration damping elastomer inserts between it and the frame as the original, with three different durometers offered and spacers to get the height correct. The difference is, a single side bolt (drive side, not visible here) looses the internal cable, which decompresses the elastomers to allow the post to be removed. The design change drops weight down to just 139g for the post. Once you’ve measured and cut the seatmast, slide the post in and tighten the bolt to pull the cable tighter, which compresses the elastomers against the mast to hold the post in place. The post and mast aren’t ever actually touching, helping to diffuse road vibrations by putting only three elastomer rings and the upper sleeve in contact with the frame.
The shaped headtube uses the extra room from the aero shaping behind the steerer to funnel the cables and wires through the frame while keeping the center section very thin:
All that integration doesn’t mean a lack of adjustability. The stem can be angled within a 30º range, giving you a lot of room to fine tune position. Presumably different stem lengths are available, we’re awaiting final specs and info. A rubbery cover smooths the lines between the stem and the frame regardless of stem angle.
Once you’ve got stem angle dialed, the handlebar angle can be adjusted via bolts hidden behind a shiny black cover. The handlebar is new, too. It’s full carbon and completely NACA profiled across the top with front facing cable ports that’ll end up under the tape and exit ports on the bottom of the bar to feed everything neatly into the headtube.
Behind that is an integrated Di2 junction box clip.
Shimano Direct-Mount rear brake calipers fit behind the bottom bracket. The Look ZED 2 crankset is a marvel of lightweight integration, building the entire crank -arms and spindle- into a single carbon fiber part. It requires a massive BB hole, but saves a ton of weight. Pedal thread inserts can be rotated to create different effective arm lengths.
Two frame models will be available, the 795 Aerolight, above, with all of the integration, and the 795 Light, below, which uses traditional brakes.
We’re awaiting pricing and availability info along with weights and other spec details. Updates as we get it.
