The LOOK 675 Light is fast and responsive, but with a sophisticated carbon construction and upright geometry that means its speed is not derived at the expense of comfort.
This impressive balancing act places the 675 Light in the vanguard of a rapidly-emerging breed of high-performance endurance bikes, in which Canyon’s Endurace, Trek’s Domane Classics Edition, and Cipollini’s Logos might also be included.
Presented with a seemingly unstoppable rise in the popularity of the European granfondo – add the Haute Route series, Trois Etapes, the Cent Cols Challenge et al to ‘Monuments’ like L’Etape, the Marmotte and Maratona – cycling’s biggest brands are responding with machines tailored for the serious amateur. If the performance of LOOK’s 675 Light can be taken as a guide, it’s a trend to be welcomed.
The chassis
The chassis of the LOOK 675 Light has a host of proprietary features, but the most striking was also the most notable in performance terms. The integration of toptube and handlebar stem – what LOOK calls an A-stem – made for some very precise steering, though the 90mm stem on our 53cm, medium-sized test bike felt a little short.
Stem length aside, the tall headtube (157mm from bottom of headtube to stem cutaway; 210mm to top of stem) and the 52cm top-tube (centre of seat-tube to centre of fork steerer) were well proportioned, and made it easy to adopt an aggressive position.
The 410mm chainstays contributed to a pleasing alacrity that was especially notable during sprint training efforts focused on accelerating from low speeds. The slender seatstays may also have been a contributor to a certain plushness in the 675 Light’s ride quality. LOOK ascribe this estimable trait to their Dual Comfort and Stiffness Concept (DCSC), achieved by flattening the tube profiles without reducing their diameter, to improve, they say, lateral rigidity and vertical flexibility.
More importantly, the 675 Light proved aptly named. LOOK claim a sub-990g weight for the frame, and our bike tipped the scale at 7.55kg with supplied pedals, despite being equipped with an unflattering 1735g wheelset (more of which below). LOOK claim a 250g weight saving from the standard 675, achieved with full carbon dropouts, headtube and bottom bracket. The comparatively low overall weight imbued the 675 Light with a natural swiftness and a propensity to go fast at any given opportunity. Generic or third-party components, happily, are absent.
The components
We’re happy to doff our cap to a manufacturer that deploys a full groupset, as nature (or the component manufacturer, at least) intended. Kudos then to LOOK for dishing out a full helping of Shimano’s 6800-series mechanical Ultegra group on our test bike (there’s a Di2 Ultegra version in the range, too).
The deployment of Mavic’s budget Aksium wheel was harder to understand, and we can only assume that LOOK were keen to offer the 675 Light at a certain price point. The Annecy firm’s entry-level aluminium clincher, however, failed to do justice to LOOK’s sophisticated carbon chassis, and this 1735g wheelset would be the first – but, in fairness to LOOK, only – item we’d seek to upgrade.
Elsewhere, everything from the Selle Italia SLR saddle to the 3T Ergonova carbon handlebar met with our approval and proved a suitable match for a frameset of such quality. We were once lucky enough to own a set of LOOK’s KEO Carbon 2 pedals too (lost in Mallorca – true story, not the title of an airport novel) and these would again do full justice to the rest of the package offered here (file this last observation under ‘personal preference’ rather than ‘essential upgrade’).
The ride
The LOOK 675 Light’s most notable quality is the ability of the chassis to deliver speed and comfort: a combination that might be classed as something of a Holy Grail for bicycle designers. So much is made of the supposedly magical qualities of carbon fibre, but we’ve always maintained that, as with any other material, the skill of the designer and the quality of the materials will have the final say. When the best of both are in place, a composite frame is hard to beat. Such is the case with LOOK’s 675 Light.
There is nothing of the ‘dead’ feel of some resin-filled frames produced to a budget, or the excessive harshness sometimes encountered with those designed with the belief that stiffness is a carbon frame’s only desirable quality. Rather, there is an innate class to the 675 Light, one we’ve previously encountered in its 695 sister, and machines of similar pedigree, such as Wilier’s superb Zero 7.
Press hard on the pedals, and it will respond with little hesitation (and perhaps none, given a better wheelset). Launch it into corners, and it will seek the apex with arrow-like precision. Point it uphill and it will exhibit a desire to reach the summit with as little delay as possible, despite the unsuitability of the supplied wheels for such a task. There is little in terms of performance between this machine and its race-oriented sister, despite a substantially different geometry.
Conclusion
The LOOK 675 Light is an excellent bicycle, one able to combine the goals of performance and comfort in an elegant machine that is a pleasure to ride. We’d swap out the Mavic Aksium wheels without further delay were we in the business of owning rather than testing the machine and install something better able to do justice to the excellent qualities of the frameset. For riders with a European granfondo on their agenda this summer, the 675 Light is worthy of serious consideration.
Price: £3799
Size: XS, S, M, L, XL
Colour: slate grey
Website: LOOK Cycles
