Look G85 Cezal Gravel Bike. ©Clifford Lee/Cyclocross Magazine
Look of France released the first step-in clipless pedals (that means without toe clips and straps) in 1984. In 1986, while sponsoring the La Vie Claire team, Look introduced one of the first carbon framesets, the Look KG 86, which won the Tour de France under Greg LeMond, the first American winner of the Tour. In 1990, Look, still one of the only companies producing bike frames using carbon fiber composite, came out with the KG 196 using monoblock construction instead of the tube-to-tube lugged construction. This was a method that was new at the time, first used successfully by Kestrel Composites in 1987.
At the beginning of 2020, we posted a review of Look’s first gravel bike, the carbon Look 765 RS, equipped with SRAM Force. The bike had a maximum recommended 40mm tire clearance, a dropped right chainstay, and a 42 X 36 low gear. The Look 765 RS was my favorite of the bikes I rode in 2019.
Gravel riding and racing’s evolution over the past 6 years has brought about greater tire clearance, with a preference for 50mm tires for most conditions, both racing and adventure. The Look G85 Cezal updates the 765 RS.
The Look G85 Cezal Frame
The G85 Cezal frame is a carbon monocoque made with a partner factory in Taiwan using tools Look designed, a proprietary fiber mix, and a layup schedule overseen by Look’s engineers. Look’s 40 years of experience in carbon bike frame construction and layup give the company real expertise.
Compared to its predecessor, the reach of the G85 Cezal is 5mm longer and the stack almost a centimeter higher. Our size L review sample has a 56.1 effective top tube with a 53cm seat tube. The reach and stack are 390mm and 614mm respectively. The size L 765 RS has a 56.9cm effective top tube with a 53cm seat tube. The reach and stack are 385mm and 605mm respectively. The seat tube angle of the G85 Cezal is 74 degrees. The 154.4mm headtube is neither tall nor short. Those measurment changes won’t change the ride, but the stem length or rise will be different to achieve the same fit.
The top tube is a rounded trapezoidal cross section that tapers and slopes 10 degrees down from the headtube to the seat tube. The flat tube profile and open triangle leave plenty of room for a frame bag or top tube bag, and easy shoulder portaging if you use the bike for cyclocross. Mounting screws are in place for a standard top tube bag or water bottle cage.
The control lines run through the headtube and enter just below the stem at the front of the steerer tube. I like the neat look of internal cable and hose routing, but am not a fan of control lines inside the handlebars and stem, so this is a good solution. We saw a similar style on the Trek Boone; however, in this case, the lines enter just below the stem, requiring proprietary spacers with space for the control lines. The control lines must be removed for headset bearing service.
Look G85 Cezal headtube cable management. ©Clifford Lee/Cyclocross Magazine
The G85 Cezal forgoes the dropped chainstay, but extends the chainstays to 42.5cm. Look states the maximum rear tire width is 50mm, 10mm wider than the 765 RS. If you run a double chainring with a front derailleur, the maximum recommended rear tire width is 45mm. The fork’s tire clearance is 57mm, or 2.24 inches.
Look G85 Cezal with a 45mm Hutchinson Touareg. The tire measures 48mm on the Fulcrum Soniq. ©Clifford Lee/Cyclocross Magazine
Steering Geometry
Front-end geometry varies slightly by size. The M and L sizes have a 70-degree head tube angle. Combined with the 50mm fork offset, the trail is 78mm with a 45mm tire. The steering geometry is familiar and somewhat standard for gravel bikes these days. The front center for our size L bike is 644, which is nothing extraordinary.
The bottom bracket is T47 wide, also called T47 85.5. The bottom bracket drop varies a bit by frame size. Sizes M and L drop 73.3mm.
The seat stay and chainstay configuration is bridgeless, which is standard for disc brake carbon frames. There is no need to brace the stays against lateral forces that rim brakes apply.
Look G85 Cezal with Cables, Wires, or Neither
There are two exit points for a cable or wire on the right chainstay, giving multiple choices for shifting cable or wire routing. The rear wheel and mech mount is the SRAM UDH open standard.
Look G85 Cezal rear derailleur wire or cable port. ©Clifford Lee/Cyclocross Magazine
The cable exit forward of the rear derailleur and axle mount gives a smoother shift cable arc, depending on the rear derailleur you choose.
Look G85 Cezal rear derailleur cable port for a smoother cable exit. ©Clifford Lee/Cyclocross Magazine
Control lines run from the head tube through the down tube to their destinations. The system provides a front derailleur hanger with a wire port, but no front derailleur cable. The front mech must be electronic.
Look G85 Cezal provision for an electronic front derailleur. There is no provision for a cable operated mechanical front derailleur. ©Clifford Lee/Cyclocross Magazine
Mounts and Storage on the Look G85 Cezal
In-frame storage on gravel bikes is popular. Why not utilize the hollow space of the large downtube to store tools or other items? Well, Look did just that with a downtube storage space easily accessible via a trapdoor beneath the bottle cage mount. The bottle cage mount is on the trapdoor. The panel has a rubberized seal and locks closed with a cam lever. The Look G85 Cezal includes a small zippered bag perfectly sized for the storage compartment. Loose items, aside from a compact jacket or small vest, will fall into the frame if not contained.
Look Accessory pouch fits into the downtube storage compartment. ©Clifford Lee/Cyclocross Magazine
The storage opening also gives access to the control lines. This eases setup and maintenance to a degree. I’m not so sure I like the bottle cage mounted to the trapdoor. With a full bottle, there is a lot of force against the trapdoor, which is held in by two plastic tabs, one at the top and one at the bottom. I can see the door flex a bit as I wiggle the bottle in the cage back and forth.
The back of the trapdoor that covers the downtube storage. Note the bottle cage bolts protruding and the locking points. ©Clifford Lee/Cyclocross Magazine
The speckled purple paint with neon orange Look graphics is attractive and garnered many compliments during my ride.
The Look G85 Cezal build
Our review bike is the top-of-the-line of the 3 G85 Cezal complete bikes. The G85 Cezal is also available as a frameset if you have a custom build in mind, and now two G85 Cezal RS model bikes sit atop the order.
The drivetrain is SRAM Force 1 X13 XPLR E1 wireless. The 170mm crankarms hold a 42-tooth X Sync chainring. It pairs with a Force XPLR 1371 10-46T 13-speed cassette.
SRAM Force XPLR AXS Transmission. Also notice how the one-sided Look X-One G pedal hangs upside down. ©Clifford Lee/Cyclocross Magazine
This yields a 0.91:1.0 low gear ratio, or 24.6 gear inches. The high gear ratio is 4.4:1.0 or 113.4 gear inches. That is a 461% range spaced over 13 steps. This drivetrain requires the SRAM Road Flattop chain to match the SRAM XPLR AXS drivetrain, since the roller diameter is larger than traditional chains.
New SRAM Force E1 brake/shift levers and Force calipers stop the bike with 160mm SRAM Paceline center lock rotors.
Look provides the carbon seatpost and the aluminum handlebar and stem. The seatpost is 27.2mm in diameter with a 2-bolt clamp. Nicely, the front rail-clamp bolt has a dial that makes fine saddle tilt adjustment easier. The saddle is the Shortfit Gravel Narrow from Selle San Marco with Look branding. The G85 Cezal has a wedge-style seatpost binder.
The handlebar on this size L bike is 40cm wide at the hoods and flares to 47 at the drops. The clamp is 31.8mm, and the top of the bar is flat for comfort and, presumably, for aerodynamic advantage. The stem is 10cm long and zero-degree, so flipping it to gain or lose rise makes no difference. The bottom side is concave to hide the brake lines. This standard handlebar and stem setup gives the rider a lot of flexibility to change the bar and its position.
The Look aluminum bar and stem combination. ©Clifford Lee/Cyclocross Magazine
Fulcrum Soniq
The OEM wheel specification for our SRAM Force-equipped model is the Fulcrum Soniq 2WF. I did not weigh the wheels alone, but this is a 1600gram (claimed 1595 grams) wheelset with a wave-pattern carbon rim that alternates between 42mm and 47mm deep. The tire bed has no holes for reliable tubeless tire sealing. However, this makes replacing spoke nipples much more complicated. 24 double-butted (2.0/1.8/2.0) straight-pull spokes hold the rim with an interesting 2:1 lace pattern. There are 16 spokes: X2 on the drive side and 8 spokes: X1 on the non-drive side. The front wheel has the rotor on the X2 side.
The rim is 25mm wide internally, 30mm wide externally. There is a small rim hook. Hutchinson 45mm Touareg tubeless tires are 48mm wide on these wheels.
Look X-One G single-sided pedals
I used a set of Look X-One G single-sided pedals for part of the review ride. These aluminum-body SPD-compatible pedals weigh 143 grams per side. They are wide with a remarkably stable platform for a 2-bolt cleat pedal. The platform width, and lack of an engagement mechanism on one side, give both solid engagement and better aerodynamics. Look did a great job placing the height of the cleat retention mechanism so the shoe lugs contact the platform solidly while engaging easily. However, the small one-sided pedal is hard to orient for engagement. The pedal doesn’t drop into a consistent position to step into, like most road pedals.
The Look X-One G one-sided gravel pedal has its place. ©Clifford Lee/Cyclocross Magazine
In many instances, I struggled to flip the pedal to engage. The back side is just a very unstable, thin axle body. For about the same price, and 6 grams per pedal more, you get a two-sided pedal with solid engagement with the Wolf Tooth ALT pedal. The Look X-Track two-sided pedal is also a good alternative, and if you have the money, the Race Carbon-Ti version weighs only 4 grams per pedal more than the aluminum one-sided X-One G, but costs USD 75 more.
The Look X-One G is a useful alternative to a road pedal if you want a shoe to walk in comfortably and remounting is not on a sketchy part of the trail. In my experience, the SPD-style pedal clears mud better than a road cleat and pedal combination. The Look X-One G one-sided pedal is not a novel idea. The one-sided Shimano SPD-R of the late 1990s is a road pedal that uses the 2-bolt SPD cleat. The Shimano ES-600 is a modern version of that.
Without pedals, the curb weight of the G85 Cezal, with 2 Look carbon bottle cages and tire sealant, is 19.0 pounds. That’s light, considering the 1500gram wheelset.
Look G85 Cezal Ride
This bike is fun to ride. The Look G85 Cezal is a gravel race bike, a style I like most, coming from a racing discipline like cyclocross. The long, low geometry yields good stability when going straight ahead and downhill, especially as speed picks up. The front end, with the relatively heavy front wheel and tire combination, is floppy at slow speed, which unnerves me on pavement because I don’t expect the front end to drop in a turn, and it feels like the bike wants to oversteer. When carving a turn on the road, which involves leaning more than steering, the bike easily goes where I point it.
Cyclocross, Trail, Gravel
Off-road is another matter. With so much terrain variation on trail rides, I don’t notice the flop. I prefer the long, slow front end on rocky or bumpy descents as the bike doesn’t get kicked off its line so easily. The low bottom bracket puts me half a centimeter or more closer to the ground than a lot of cyclocross bikes, and I feel more secure on some technical downhill sections. However, I had more pedal strikes on rocky or rooted technical uphills, and I lost some confidence on steep “ride-ups,” those short steep pitches that crest sharply, something you might encounter on a cyclocross course or trail ride. It’s just a matter of changing your riding style to accommodate this.
The Look G85 Cezal shines on less chunky gravel courses, with fewer rocks and roots, fewer off-camber sections or ride-ups. It’s capable of all that, but it shines on fast gravel, where you’re putting out wattage in your most aero position. With a 100mm flat stem, minimal spacers, and flat-section handlebars, I am in an optimal position for racing. The frame is stiff enough that I feel my energy goes to forward motion. Surface vibrations are not transmitted any more than on other carbon gravel bikes I’ve ridden recently.
I do notice the effort required when spinning up the relatively heavy wheel and tire combination. On long gravel races with long straight sections into the wind, the deep section wheels aid aerodynamics. The wave profile supposedly reduces the effect of crosswinds on the deep rims, something studied and pioneered by Princeton CarbonWorks. Perhaps aerodynamics wins over weight, especially with steady-speed, fast riding.
SRAM Force 1 XPLR AXS E1
The SRAM Force E1 brake/shift levers are the best I’ve held to date. The lever body shape and girth are perfect for my hands. I like the lever body length; it gives flexible hand positions and a bit more extension if you want it. The top knob is high enough but not so high as to be restrictive—like the SRAM Force HRD levers from days of yore. There is also an extra shift button on the inboard side of each lever’s knob. The best part of the E1 brake/shift levers is the brake lever blade. The pivot point is forward and high, giving a lot of leverage when braking from the hoods. SRAM Force brakes feel much improved from the last iteration, with more firmness and better modulation. I only wish they would move away from DOT brake fluid, which is hygroscopic and hard to work with and dispose of.
The Force XPLR AXS E1 transmission rear derailleur is massive. It has a carbon cage with big 12-tooth pulleys. Sometime later in my review rides, the transmission began to mis-shift in the middle of the cassette. I adjusted the derailleur position to fix it, only to cause misshifting on a different set of cogs on the cassette. Without crashing or dropping the bike on the drive side, I checked chain wear, B-gap, and other alignment parameters. However, there is no traditional derailleur hanger to align. Shifting was fine before, so I can only surmise that during my trail rides some rock or stick struck and misaligned the pulley cage, which is difficult to check. The pulley cage is the weakest part of the T-Type SRAM transmission derailleur and the long cage sits low in a vulnerable position. SRAM sells replacement pulley cages because they know the cage is prone to damage. What used to be an easy to check and align derailleur hanger is now a more complicated and expensive pulley cage replacement.
©Clifford Lee/Cyclocross Magazine
The Verdict©Clifford Lee/Cyclocross Magazine
I like this bike and would recommend it to someone looking for a gravel race bike. For day-long adventures, the G85 Cezal feels sprightly and has a good balance of off-road stability and nimble enough road manners. It’s not a bikepacking or adventure gravel bike, but if you’re a light-and-fast type bikepacker, it can handle a short overnighter. The ample tire clearance offers versatility if you want to underbike a bit less on some trails, as is my penchant. Though the wheelbase is a bit long and the bottom bracket a bit low, you can also use it as your cyclocross bike. The wide gravel tire space makes mud clearance great with narrower knobby tires.
USD 7,500 is a lot for a new bike, but the SRAM Force 1 model we reviewed requires no upgrades. The Look G85 Cezal built with other groupsets costs less. The Shimano GRX 12-speed mechanical drivetrain model goes for USD 4,200. The G85 Cezal is available as a frameset for USD 3,500, so get the GRX version for a mere 800 bucks more.
As this is going to post, Look introduced the G85 Cezal RS. This new racing version forgoes the in-frame storage compartment and has a higher-modulus carbon frame. This makes the frame lighter and likely stiffer, as there is no need to reinforce a storage compartment frame opening. We can only speculate how that changes the ride quality. The new race model comes with an upgrade to Fulcrum Sharq wheels, and a bigger price tag. The G85 Cezal RS with the same drivetrain as our review model, but with the wheel upgrade and a one-piece carbon bar and stem, is USD 8,500. The G85 RS with SRAM Red is USD 10,500. A G85 Cezal RS frameset will be available soon.
A lot goes into choosing a new bike. Look’s palmares and long history as a pioneer in cycling technology, particularly carbon frame building, give the brand panache. The G85 Cezal carries on that legacy.
Look G85 Cezal Specifications (As Ridden)
MSRP: USD 7,500
Frame: Carbon fiber monocoque, 12 X 142mm through-axle, T47 Wide (85.5) BB, SRAM UDH
Fork: Look Carbon, 12 X 100 through axle
Weight: 19.0 pounds as tested, without pedals; 12.0 pounds without wheels
Shifters: SRAM Force E1 13-speed
Crankset: SRAM Force 1 42T direct mount, 170.0mm arm
Brakes: SRAM Force flat-mount calipers, SRAM rotors, 160mm front and rear
Cockpit: Look aluminum 40cm, Look 10cm stem, aluminum
Seatpost: Look carbon, 2-bolt head, 27.2mm diameter
Saddle: Selle San Marco Shortfit, cro-moly rails
Wheels: Fulcrum Soniq carbon rims, 25mm internal width, 42mm/47mm deep, 24 db spokes 2:1 lacing
Tires: Hutchinson Touareg, 700C x 45mm
Warranty: Frame 2 years, eligible for Look + warranty program.
Country of origin: Taiwan
More Info: Lookcycle.com
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