Leading into Eurobike Look teased us with shots of a new disc brake version of their lightweight 785 Huez RS carbon climbing bike. But that was far from all they had to show, with a new aero road bike in disc & rim brake variants, a couple of Fazua-powered e-road e-bikes, and a carbon gravel bike prototype behind glass…
2019 Look 795 Blade RS Disc aero carbon road bike
Where the Aerolight is their current carbon aero road bike, this new Look 795 Blade RS looks ready to supplant it as their all-around road racing bike.
With a more conventionally horizontal toptube, the Blade still manages to integrate the stem fairly close into the headset & toptube design. This bike was set up with a single spacer under the stem for a slightly higher bar position, but pop that out for a more integrated, more aggressively aero fit.
Details remain pretty thin on the new Blade which Look said would get a proper launch later in the year. In fact this prototype bike made the trip from their own Tunisia factory straight to the show. As they put it (exaggerated it), the carbon was almost still warm from the mold, and paint almost still wet. So the bike didn’t have the full set of cable installed. But between the internal routing in the bar and the guides on the side of this stem that take the shift & brake lines into the frame, there will be a pretty sleek cable routing setup that gets most of the aero gains of a fully integrated solution, in a much more serviceable setup.
Out back we see this red bike is the 795 Blade RS Disc version with 12mm thru-axles and Mavic Speed Release semi-open dropouts. Calipers are of course flat mount and run 140 or 160mm rotors.
One of biggest changes over the Aerolight is more built-in comfort to make the 795 Blade RS more of an all-rounder. The UCI approved bike features a wedge-style seatpost clamp on eth aero post that is easily accessible, and also builds in a bolt hole on the top to attach their pro team’s number plate.
Look wanted the most aero benefit from a narrow frontal profile to the stays. And to get comfort out of a tall set of seatstays, they are actually bowed. While flat stays flex up and down to absorb the bumps, these achieve the same comfort benefits by flexing out when an impact comes in through the rear axle.
The resulting 795 Blade RS is a aero frame with deep tube shapes that still promises comfort, built from Look’s top end carbon fibers.
2019 Look 795 Blade RS rim brake aero carbon road bike
If you are still looking for aero gains while sticking with rim brake wheels, Look has you covered there too. The Look 795 Blade RS also comes in a rim brake version that shares much of the same tech and look, with small front & rear wheel cutouts in the aero frame.
The rim brake variant gets a bit less integration, at least with the rear brake routed under the toptube for a direct path back to the brake in its conventional location.
To get the same comfort performance in the rear with the same deep aero seatstays, the rim brake version uses a stiff carbon spar, essentially where a mono-stay would be. Then a standard single bolt brake and QR axles can be used to match comfort and lightweight rim braking simplicity.
2019 Look 785 Huez RS Disc lightweight carbon climber’s road bike
The Look 785 Huez RS Disc is pretty much exactly what we anticipated. A direct disc brake evolution of their lightest road racing bike. The result is a claimed 790g frame (Small) and 280g full carbon fork, among the lightest of disc brake bikes on the market, with a starting complete bike price point of 6000€.
Flat mount discs, thru-axles, and Mavic Speed Release semi-open dropouts manage the new disc brake wheels. The frameset offers routing for mechanical or electronic drivetrains, and ends up with some empty rubber plugs for the eTap builds.
The 785 Huez RS Disc is made from a blend of five types of Look’s carbon ultra-high, high & standard modulus fibers (12-90T). The bike comes in five sizes (XS-XL) and includes Look’s lifetime warranty on both frame & fork.
Look e-765 Optimum Disc & e-765 Gravel Disc Fazua-powered e-bikes
On the e-bike or rather e-road bike front, Look is heading down the path of integrated Fazua battery+motor+differential setups. With one of the sleekest solutions on the e-assist market, Fazua’s e-motor also offers some of the least resistance while pedaling above the 25km/hr limiter.
The olive green e-765 Gravel Disc bike above gets builds with knobby tires for off-road exploring, while the red e-765 Optimum Disc opts for aero wheels and slick tires, presumably to extend your climbing range.
Both Fazua-powered e-765 e-bikes feature the same base frame with some slick integration of cable routing, headset spacers, an internal seatpost binder, their Speed Release thru-axle, and flat mount disc brakes.
Prototype Look 765 Gravel RS Disc carbon gravel bike
Much like the e-765 Gravel Disc, but for those who want to earn their off-road descents, Look has a new 765 Gravel RS Disc carbon gravel bike in the works. Hidden behind glass, this looked like a well refined bike, but Look says it won’t be available to customers until the early riding season of 2019.
Full details of this bike will also come later, but for now we could sus out a lot of tech from this pre-production prototype.
The 765 Gravel RS Disc shares the same integrated, modular internal cable routing solution as on the e-765s, and it also gets the same dropped headset topcap. The proper pedal-ly gravel bike also gets more versatility by way of an assortment of accessory mounts, including toptube bag mounts.
If also gets the same dramatically shaped forged alloy stem that offers low stack at the steerer tube, but a surprisingly upright bar position.
The premium RS carbon chainstays get a dropped design to squeeze in a set of 37mm WTB Riddlers, together with a road compact chainset.
Out back the 765 Gravel RS Disc gets a unique set of seatstays with two distinct, thinned & flattened flex points on each stay (nicely highlighted in orange) to deliver rear end comfort. Up front the wider fork legs taper close around a slimmer, hollowed-out Mavic Speed Release – a big improvement over other Speed Release solutions we’ve seen on a few other high-end bikes.
Maybe not surprisingly, the bike hidden behind glass smeared with bike shop employee fingerprints was the most interesting to me. We’ll be bugging Look to find out more about its ultimate commercial release – and hopefully get a chance to ride one before then to report back.
