i'm looking for a frame for general road riding and racing, probably no or few TT situations.

i'm comparing the xx6 series frames with the xx1 series.

the 486 and 386 framesets are clearly slightly more TT oriented with the thicker, aero tubes, curved seat tube, adjustable wheelbase, etc.

for those that have ridden them, how much of a TT bike is this, and how suited - or not - would it be for general road riding and racing?

G'day,

I've got an '04 486. I use it for Road races & T/Ts.....The framset is eaually at home with both out of the saddle efforts & 'in saddle' T/Ting.....& don't get me started on the comfort & handling of my 'ride'!. They come with the HSC4 fork, (although the 05 model will have the HSC5 with carbon dropouts). I would rate this fork right up there with Colnago's 'star' as the best around. I haven't had any 'shimmie' at speeds up to 90kph & continually marvel at the 'lateral' stiffness the frame affords. The frame is a thing of beauty & is 'stiff' in all the right places without being 'fat & ugly' like some of the CF frames around,(that might begin with a "T" & some bloke called Lance rides). I make very little 'set up' change to the bike when doing a T/T. , depending on the course, but usually, only whack on the areo bars, tilt the seat a little forward, whack on the cosmics....voila T/t bike extraordinaire!....

cheers,

Hitchy

Look for the new 2005 Look 585, one third lighter than the KG481SL, itself a bit lighter than the KG486. Price will be about the same. Already available in France.

thanks for the info, guys.

any advice on frame fit?

looking at look's geo, i notice some odd numbers. deviating from typical "square" geometry - smaller frame sizes tend to have TTs longer than the ST is high, but larger frames tend to have TTs shorter than the ST is high.

odds are, i wouldn't be able to ride the frame before i buy it...

G'day,

firstly, although you would be extremely hard to please if you don't love a Look frameset, i wouldn't even consider spending that sort of cash on a frame i hadn't ridden...no way!.....I presume the fact that you say you won't be able to ride one, means that it's possibly an online purchase, rather than an LBS?...you might have to 'scope' about to come up with one...but do it..it's too expensive a purchase to get wrong. You're right about the geo....like a lot of manufacturers these days, the traditional sizing methods are redundent...you need to get yourself fitted. I've got a 53 in the 486 frame, yet my previous 'traditional' frame is a 57" (top tube centre to centre)....I'm 5 10 or 180cm...no weird leg or arm sizes.....The 486 frames slop more the smaller that they are...I think the 56 has no slope at all & looks like a traditional frame.....I had no trouble on either the 53 or 55...but spent plenty of time mucking about with seat post height & stem length & spacers to get it perfect...I still have my old frame which i ride as a training bike...it feels like a terrible fit now!......please, please get yourself fitted to this frame,

cheers,

hitchy

i've posted about this before.

i realize i'm going to need some kind of help in the frame fitting, but as for riding this frame built up, it's going to be virtually impossible unless i travel many, many miles. there is a local Look dealer, but shops in NYC are tiny and it's rare that they have more than two unbuilt frames in stock, and maybe - maybe - one built up.

without me effectively committing to buying it (and probably paying for it up-front), there is no way a shop is going to order me a large-ish, high-end frameset and build it up, just so i can try it out.

unless i get totally lucky and find a shop that has a frame built-up in my size (or meet someone who owns the bike and is nice enough to let me ride it), it's going to be tough to get my hands on one.

since i do most of my wrench-turning myself, i'm going to source the parts myself for cheaper (hopefully much cheaper) than LBS and do most of the build-up myself (last time i did that, i built it all up except for the headset install and had the local pros do a final tune-up).

i'm certainly going to talk to as many owners as possible before buying a frameset.

thanks for your words...

g'day,

ok...well then you're probably doing all you can......I've never met anyone that hasn't been absolutely in love with whatever look framset they have chosen.....so you are probably ok there anyway....Size isn't a huge if you are only getting the frameset & doing the best yourself...as i said, I could have had either a 53 or 55 in the 486 just as easily...by the time you muck about with crank length, stem, seat post...you'll have something pretty close to perfect. I'm 5 10...& got the 53 & its perfect...so maybe you can glean something from that as far as sizing goes....what components are you considering?. In Oz it only comes as the frame/fork & headset (FSA) so the rest was pretty much up to me. I got the Look carbon post but stayed away from the Look stem....I like something more 'substantial', ended up with Cinelli neo (oversize) with a 120 stem,

cheers,

hitchy

yeah, i can see how you could end up with an incorectly-sized 486 frameset if you just went by the size number. the bottom bracket hangs down low and the seat tube extends up past the tt.

though interestingly enough, by the time you get to my size, 59, the TT and ST are both 59cm squared, so that may be my size. i'll do some more research here...

in terms of components, i'm not sure yet. perhaps record 10 with eurus wheelset, fsa k-wing or itm bar and some other goodies. we'll see!