The Look family - Look KG196, KG381 & 695 Aerolight

So finally took this bike out around the Kent lanes, was not the best weather but with the current global issue, it was the only matter of time before we can’t go outside for a ride anymore.

What I notice this bike is extremely fast, mainly due to the veloflex master and latex tube. In a straight line it’s so fast, but cornering as this was design mainly TT let’s say it’s comical and ‘oh shit moment’ at the same time.

The braking is a joke, more than anything I think it was the compound that really it’s not really biting the rim at all and I’m really pulling on the brakes hard to actually stop.

Changing gear is fine, granted climbing any long hills around Kent was a grind as 39x26 is really burning my thighs! But what I took for granted was being able to chasing from a small ring to a big rind mid climb, I totally forgot about old technology that struggle to do this 😅

But the worse thing that happened to me yesterday on the 80 mile loop was the rear wheel slipping and scuff my beautiful rear stay...MOTHER FUCKERS!!!

I thing it might be the original Mavic skewers that was not keeping the hub in place. The front was perfectly fine but the rear near the end of the ride was slipping and luckily I found it before it caused any major damage.

I keep recentering my rear wheel every time I change gear so basically it was a single speed to nurse the bike home. Once I was home I swap the mavic skewers out and put some DA 7400 skewers on. Will give it a gentle test ride next week and see if the wheel stays in place.

Always the case isn’t it? A romantic idea to ride an vintage bike, until you realise the limitations/drawbacks of old bikes #wouldagain