Several friends had raced the Barry Roubaix gravel race (the world’s largest gravel race, in Hastings, Michigan) and I was persuaded to enter for the first time in 2018. I didn’t have a gravel bike, and after a lot of searching and deliberating I found a used 2015 Kona Super Jake CX bike on Craigslist, which I ended up buying.

It was an incredible deal. Carbon frame, with what appeared to be a brand new 105 groupset and new bars, stem, seat post and saddle and I bought it for $1,000 (retail when new in 2015 was $4,000)

It served me well. The 36 mile Barry Roubaix in 2018 was my first real experience riding gravel on a gravel bike, then I went on to race several other gravel events, including my 216 mile Michigan Coast to Coast gravel race in June 2019, and I enjoyed many of the local gravel group rides.

Colnago G3-X My Dream Gravel Bike

I bought the Kona because it was a good deal and I needed a bike at the time, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it, but I decided I wanted to get the bike I really wanted, rather than the bike that happened to be available at the time. Being a Colnago ‘fanboy’, I wanted a Colnago G3-X, which is a gravel version of the V3-Rs, the bike that Tadej Pogačar rode to victory in the 2020 Tour de France.

Complete bikes with GRX800 components retail for around $4,500 and framesets retail for $2,900. This makes the complete bike a much better deal than the frameset. However I’d upgraded some of the components on the Kona and had built a nice set of wheels with Chris King hubs, so my plan was to find a good deal on a frameset, build it with components and wheels from the Kona, then over time upgrade to the new Campagnolo EKAR 1×13 gravel groupset, which would have been particularly apt on the Colnago – Italian bikes need Campagnolo!

Long story short, in April 2021, G3-X framesets in my size (58s) were sold out worldwide, with the next batch unavailable until spring 2022.

Then a Colnago dealer I know on Facebook made me aware that there was a used G3-X frame in my size on bikeexchange.com. It was advertised as size 58, I contacted the seller and bought it for what I thought was a reasonable price. I then sold my Colnago CX-1 to help fund the new bike. I hardly rode the CX-1 now that I had the V1-R, and I was keeping it as a spare bike. However I decided I’d be better having the money to put into the new gravel bike, and if need be, buy a second set of wheels with road tires for the gravel bike in case I needed an alternative to the V1-R.

The frame arrived, and I thought it looked way better than in the photos I’d seen. The paintwork was great with a deep metallic emerald green. The frameset also came complete with seat post, stem, saddle and a nice carbon Colnago bottle cage.

For some reason, something made me concerned that the frame was smaller than it should be for a 58s. I took some measurements and compared to the Colnago geometry chart. Sure enough, it was a 55s, not the 58s that I needed. I was deeply disappointed.

I was frustrated because the geometry looked so close to my V1-R that It may have fit me. However the seat post would have been at its minimum insertion point with the saddle at the correct height, and as the seat post is a proprietary aero post, it wouldn’t have been possible to buy a longer post. Colnago’s sizing relates to the actual distance from the bottom bracket to the top of the seat tube with a sloping top tube. More commonly, bike manufacturers quote frame size as the distance from the bottom bracket to the top of an equivalent horizontal top tube. Therefore a 55s Colnago frame (with the ‘s’ standing for sloping top tube) is the equivalent of a 58 cm frame from another manufacturer. Hence the confusion.

The bottom line was that this 55s frame had a 3 cm shorter seat tube, with 3 cm more seat post exposed than a 58s. Not wanting to be stuck with a bike with a compromised fit, I contacted the seller, returned the frame and got a refund, but lost $150 between shipping costs and PayPal fees.

Finding an Alternative to the G3-X

So at this stage, I’d sold a beloved Colnago and bought all the additional components to build my dream gravel bike, but I didn’t have a frame. I checked again, and there were no G3-X frames available anywhere. I looked for Colnago Prestige framesets (their CX bike, which would have been a good alternative to a G3-X), same again there, nothing. 3T Exploros had very good reviews and I’d have been happy with one of those – although I don’t think they’re nearly as nice looking as the Colnago – but none of those were available any time soon. Same for the Pinarello Grevil, I could be waiting to the fall for a frame. Then I found a brand new Look 765 Gravel RS frameset in XL on theproscloset.com (which is a website that specializes in buying and selling used bikes)

The frame looked great in the pictures, and the reviews were very good describing the bike as race rather than ‘adventure’ oriented, which I think was largely because it doesn’t have mounts for panniers – which was fine by me. The price was great, it was on sale for 45% less than the normal retail price. The other option was a Cervélo Áspero, which is also a great bike. I’d found a couple of 61 cm Áspero frames, but they would have cost around $1,000 more than the Look, and I liked the fact that you don’t see many of the Look bikes around so it would be a bit different.

Geometry and Fit

The table below compares the geometry of the Look 765 Gravel RS with my V1-R, the Kona, the 55s and 58s G3-X, the Áspero both in 58 and 61 cm and the 3T in XL. This shows that the 58s G3-X would have been much closer to both my V1-R and my Kona than the 55s and that the stack for the 55s G3-X is shorter than both (16 mm shorter than the V1-R, which is quite a bit). There seemed to be just enough steerer tube to allow spacers to get the bar height to where I needed for the 55s G3-X with the shorter stack, but it was marginal. Despite the reach for the 55s G3-X being about the same as my V1-R, the effective top tube length is shorter than both the V1-R and my Kona. There was room to go for a longer stem if required, however Colnago designed the G3-X with a longer reach than the V1-R in the same size, I’d read that this was specifically for the gravel geometry and to allow a shorter stem. The Look has similar reach and effective top tube length to the V1-R, higher stack (due to the long head tube), and even though the seat tube is short at 56 cm (close to that for the 55s G3-X), the Look doesn’t require a proprietary seat post. I knew that 400 or 410 mm seat posts were available which would be more than long enough.

Either a 58 or a 61 cm Áspero would have fit me, the 58 cm would have been closer to my V1-R and the 61 would have been closer to the Kona. There would have been no seat post issues with either, as the seat tube length is longer then my V1-R for both and the Áspero doesn’t use a proprietary post anyway. The 3T Exploro would have been a similar fit to my V1-R, but it has the shortest seat tube length of the lot, and uses a 3T proprietary seat post. The website lists a maximum bottom bracket to seat rail dimension, which according to that, an XL Explore would have fit me, but the seat post would surely have been close to the insertion limit. There were no frames available anyway, and even had there have been they’d have cost $800 more than the Look.

It’s worth pointing out that I’ve never had a professional bike fit, so my baselines for geometry comparison – my V1-R and Kona – are based purely on how the fit feels and what I’m used to, and there’s nothing to say the fit for me on either of these bikes is ‘correct’ or optimum. Had I had a bike fit at some stage, then I’d have been in a much better position to judge the suitability of these frame options.

I actually contacted Adams Sports Medicine, whom I’d heard excellent reviews of in terms of their bike fitting while I was deliberating over the G3-X frame fit. I was impressed that they tried to help me but understood that they couldn’t do much without seeing the bike built up, me on it and going through the fitting process. I need to and will book a bike fitting with Brian.

Anyway, I bought the Look frameset.

Buying the Components

While waiting for the frame to arrive, I bought the parts I needed specifically for the Look, namely a seat post and bottom bracket.

The seat post is 27.2mm which is one of the smaller diameter seat posts found on bike. These smaller diameter posts are spec’d to allow some seat post flex to provide comfort. I bought a Whiskey No. 7 Carbon seat post from Worldwide Cyclery. It was 400 mm long (to make sure I had plenty to seat post inside the frame) with 18 mm offset as my V1-R also has an offset seat post with similar effective top tube length. I’m really happy with this seat post which doesn’t have a weight limit and carries a lifetime warranty.

The Look uses a BB386 bottom bracket (BB), which is one of the less common press-fit BBs. BB386 is 46mm diameter (rather than the more common 41mm), 86.5mm wide (which is pretty standard), and commonly has bearings for 30mm diameter SRAM crank spindles. The used Colnago G3-X frameset I’d bought had a SRAM BB86 installed, so in anticipation of the build I’d bought a press-fit BB removal toolset. This in addition to the press-fit BB installation tool set I already had, meant I had everything I needed to remove and fit press-fit BBs. In searching for a BB386 (for 24 mm Shimano crank spindles) I couldn’t find any Shimano BBs, but came across a company called Token, that had BB386 Shimano BBs. I found out that these are standard fitment on the Look 765 Gravel RS complete bikes from the factory. The Token BBs screw together in the center making them easy to fit and remove, and they claim it reduces BB noise. So I bought one of these:

Of course, this necessitated the purchase of a new BB tool, as the more common BB tools (that I have) are 16 notch and 44 mm diameter. I needed one of these:

The wheels I intended to use for the bike are the set I built last year that are built around a set of Chris King ISO disc hubs that were on a Yeti full suspension bike I bought around 2001. They were built into a 26″ wheelset that I had on my old Yeti ARC. This has a cracked frame and therefore is out of commission. Last year I decided to put these hubs to use and built a gravel wheelset with them using DT-Swiss aluminum rims.

The Kona uses quick release rather than through axles, which are more common on bikes with disc brakes today. This required conversion of the wheelset to through axle for the Look (100 x 12 mm front, 142 x 12 mm rear). As with everything at the moment, the parts I needed for the conversion where out of stock at most places, however I was able to find parts at avt.bike, and I made the conversion by changing the axles and adjustment cones, which was straightforward.

For the G3-X build, I’d bought 105 calipers (on sale 50% off at Competitive Cyclist), got a good deal on a set of 105 hydraulic shifters from Universal Cycles (GRX were out of stock everywhere), found a GRX 810 rear derailleur at Colorado Cyclist, bought some Deda Gravel 100 (46 cm) bars and 40mm Pirelli Centuro Gravel H tan side wall tires from Merlin Cycles, then Jagwire shifter cables, hydraulic hoses and fittings, Shimano mineral oil for hydraulic brakes from Amazon and Competitive Cyclist, and SuperCaz bar tape from Nashbar. These were all fine for the Look and now I had everything I needed for the build.

The Build

Most of the build was pretty standard and straightforward, however the cable routing proved to be troublesome. The limited number of bikes I’ve worked on with internal cable routing have cable stops where the cables enter and exit the frame, this is what was implied by the assembly manual that came with the Look:

There were no black liners as stated in 1 /, 2 / suggests there should be end caps (stops) that I’m familiar with, but there were none, only an assortment of rubber grommets. I e-mailed Look technical support for advice and they sent a condecesing response saying that Look bikes are difficult to work on and I should take it to a professional mechanic to build. They did confirm that the manual is wrong and that this section refers to a completely different bike. They also confirmed what I thought, which was that the shift cable housing runs full length inside the frame. Therefore there’s no need for end stops, the cable housing (and hydraulic hoses) pass through grommets at the entry and exit points in the frame.

There’s a cable guide that sits under the bottom bracket.

The cable housing for the front derailleur cable stops against this cable guide with a ferrule, and the rear cable housing passes through the guide. There are no screws holding the guild in place, and it isn’t held into the frame by a press fit, the rear cable housing holds it in place with the housing sandwiching the guide between the cable housing and frame. This makes it tough to pull the outer casing through the guide. And of course all this is being done through the bottom bracket opening (which is probably why Look uses the larger diameter BB386):

Getting the front cable in place with the ferrule was also tricky. If ever there’s a motivation for electronic shifting, this is it! With the cable housing routed and cut to length, the only tricky bit remaining was feeding the front cable through the guide and up through the hole in the frame to the front mech.

The Token BB was easy to install, I transferred the GRX crankset, front derailleur and saddle from the Kona onto the Look and completed the build with a KMC gold chain to add a bit of bling!

Photos

Following the build, I put all the original parts back on the Kona, and sold it for $500 more than I paid for it.

Next up, rip all the Shimano components off and install a Campagnolo EKAR 1×13 groupset and Shamal Carbon wheels.