2011/2012 Look 586 — Test Bike Setup

2011-11-24 • SEND FEEDBACK •
Related: gear, Lightweight, Road Bikes, Shimano, Veloflex

Look 586 carbon fiber road bike

It was Palo Alto Bicycles (highly recommended) that made the Look 586 available to me for testing.

• Look 586 frame, HSC-5 fork.
• Aluminum FSA bar with LOOK bar tape.
• Aluminum stem.
• Look RSP seat post (not the E-Post, which has elastomers, E=“elastomer”).
• Bontrager Affinity RL saddle.
• Shimano DuraAce 7900 drivetrain, 50 X 34 compact crank.
• Shimano DuraAce PD-7900 pedals.
• My Lightweight Obermayer wheelset with Veloflex Record (front tire) and Veloflex Sprinter (rear tire), 11-28 cassette.
• Two bottles cages.

Weight

With my DuraAce pedals and two bottle cages, the above weighed in at 14.37 pounds. That’s with my ultra-light wheels, the Lightweight Obermayers, NOT the demo lead-uranium alloy* wheels— perhaps 3X as heavy as my Lightweight Obermayer wheelset. I estimate the bike would be around 16.5-17 pounds with the default boat-anchor wheelset.

My Trek Madone 6.9 SSL with Shimano DuraAce DI2, the same pedals and wheels, double bar wrap (a few extra ounces), weighs in at 14.3 pounds with the SRM 7950 power meter crankset and head unit, so the Trek setup is notably lighter. My trek has a carbon bar and carbon stem, and a slightly lighter seat.

Bar tape/wrap

My Trek Madone 6.9 SSL has double bar tape, which is definitely more comfortable than a single layer, and much thicker than the LOOK bar tape, though it does add a few ounces.

As tested, the Look 586 had a single layer of thin bar tape which I’d strongly advise against. Get a good bar wrap with some padding to it.

* Seriously, the demo wheels, which were typical aluminum race wheels with clincher tires and tubes, were probably another 2.5-3 pounds heavier.