How far have we come? Look KG196 Vs The Cobbles of Flanders: Retro ride of a true engineering icon.

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Yeah, all that's cool.

[00:00:03]Yeah.

[00:00:04]>> [laughter] >> 36 years is a long time in the cycling world when it comes to technology and it and well it's been exactly pretty much 36 years since Look released the first monocoque carbon frame made in Europe.

[00:00:42]Yes, there was carbon before that from the likes of TVT, Look themselves, and even brands like Alan. But I wanted to know how far have we come in that time?

[00:00:51]How far has monocoque carbon technology progressed in 36 years from the release of that beauty right through to our mass-produced carbon machines for the likes of you and me today. Well, while in Belgium testing the recently launched Canyon Endurace SLX, I managed to get me mitts on the Look KG196 built with near period pieces and hit the exact same road that I tested that Canyon on. So, shall we get into it get into the ride? And then if you stick around, I'll let you know exactly how I think things have progressed in that time. And I'll tell you what, I think you might be a little bit surprised.

[00:01:39]>> [music] >> Most people here are not as old as this bike.

[00:01:48]Let's show them how it's done. Big ring.

[00:01:54]Come now.

[00:01:57]Right, there we are.

[00:01:58]Just nearly went down Death Valley.

[00:02:01]Which is this area of Belgium.

[00:02:04]21 mil size tires with a bulge made of concrete slabs.

[00:02:09]It's a dangerous zone, these newfangled 35s. You don't have to worry about that anymore, do you?

[00:02:16]>> [music] >> Yeah.

[00:02:25]So far, it's so [snorts] surprising, actually.

[00:02:29]I've left the group behind. Dropped them, shall we say?

[00:02:34]Now, they've gone to watch a bit of E3.

[00:02:36]I want to have a bit more fun on this bike. Because yes, it is a surprising. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was expecting maybe floppy and harsh at the same time.

[00:02:46]I was expecting gears not to work particularly well. And I was expecting brakes not to work particularly well.

[00:02:54]Some of it is true. Brakes have come a long way. Gears I'm telling you some ceramic bearings don't have anything on this square taper BSA bottom bracket. It feels buttery smooth. And the gears have well up and down the cassette, or is it a block? No problem. Though I do think back in the 90s we must have had longer fingers than we do now. Because you have to shove that lever over to move up the cassette a long way.

[00:03:29]There also doesn't feel much margin of error with this bike. But also them tires just uh keep you on your toes. You can't expect to have the bike bail you out of tricky situations on rough stuff. That's for sure.

[00:03:50]Right, before you one very last famous cobbled climb on this thing, let's talk about why this is such an iconic bike, why it matters to bike design today and in a way that I don't think you'll expect. And also, let me just give you a quick idiot's guide to monocoque construction if you're not aware what that is. Obviously, previously to this bike, bikes were produced in a very traditional way, tube-to-tube construction. Where monocoque changed things up, it allowed designers to go wild with their designs. Basically, you took a mold of your design, laid carbon sheeting with resin impregnated into that mold, closed the mold, inflated basically small bladders inside the frame to push that carbon against the walls of the mold, cured it by baking it in essentially an oven, and then you pretty much had a final solid product after it. As I say, idiot's guide to monocoque construction. But, back to the bike. Why is it so iconic design-wise?

[00:04:48]Well, for starters, it kicked off an arms race of aero-looking machines. And yes, this thing was cutting-edge aero back in 1990. That bayonet fork up front even has had influences over bikes today, such as your Factors and that new Colnago Y1R S. That stem, well, you could chop and change your position to your heart's content, not just length, but also angle. Internally routed cables kept things slippery as well, and they had multiple variants of this frame, including a TT version, which was used by ONCE's Alex Zülle to many victories.

[00:05:26]It was also used in the triathlon world, took victories at the Ironman.

[00:05:31]But, come 1996, the UCI had had enough of bikes like this, bikes that had taken inspiration from this design, such as your Lotus designed by Mike Burrows or your Pinarello Sword.

[00:05:45]They said enough is enough with these radical designs and came up with the Lugano Charter in October of '96 dictating what a bike should look like.

[00:05:56]Basically, a triple triangle design.

[00:05:58]It's why today bikes aren't as mental looking as this thing. Was it lightweight though?

[00:06:04]Even for 1990, it was pretty heavy at 9 kilos. But boy, was it fast under the pros. The question is was it fast under me up one very famous climb? Let's find out.

[00:06:18]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Right, if you think I'm going to film going downhill, you can think again. I'm not going to be losing any teeth for you people. Let's roll out.

[00:07:01]Yeah, disc brakes are an improvement.

[00:07:04]>> [music] >> As I said, I'm going to surprise you here people.

[00:07:10]36 years is a long time in the cycling world.

[00:07:12]>> [music] >> And we have come a long way and not a long way in the world of monocoque bikes because right, I know some of this is going to be nostalgia kicking in. But I had an absolute blast on that bike. I had one of the best days out on the bike in a long time. And I've got some tasty bikes to play about on at the moment.

[00:07:31]That says a lot, doesn't it? Right, what's different? What's changed? What's worse? What's better? Let's start with aerodynamics cuz obviously that's changed massively, hasn't it? Yes, that thing's got the old ideas about having skinny airplane-like design tubing, and we've learned that things are well don't work like that anymore, and we should have come a long way in that department. Brands have spent, I'm guessing, tens of millions of dollars, pounds in wind tunnels, on computers, and real-world testing to nail what makes a bike go fast now. Yes, we're still seeing a little bit of skinny tubing.

[00:08:11]Just look at that um Colnago V1-R.

[00:08:15]I always seem to pick on them in my videos, don't I? But, truncated tubing and the whole holistic package, shall we say, is thought of in the wind tunnel aero games now rather than just the frame itself. As for weight, well, it was Belgium won it, so it didn't really matter. It was weightier than what I've got here or even the Canyon Endurace SLX that I threw a leg over, but it didn't matter in didn't feel heavy underneath me. I'm talking about feel underneath me, geometry. I honestly think they had it right back then.

[00:08:48]It was just a bike that you fell into, or at least I fell into, and it felt natural straight away. Yes, bikes have evolved a little bit with it geometry in places and with wider tires, disc brakes, the demands of different roles, different styles of riding today mean that you've got to change your geometry a little bit here and there, but let's just on a general sense, they had it right in the '90s pretty much. What they didn't have right was the depth for them bars.

[00:09:19]I forgot how flexy you needed to be back then.

[00:09:23]Right, so we've done aero, we've done weight. Comfort-wise, though, this thing really surprised me. I was amazed how comfortable it was. Cons- When you compare it to the 35 mil tires, the compliance seat post, the carbon that's been to soak up shocks. The carbon handlebars designed to soak up shocks. The thicker fancier bar tape. The budget geometry style engineered saddles that we have today.

[00:09:49]This thing I came away from expecting that I'd have to go to the dentist and get new fillings. No, I didn't even need to go and get a mild massage after riding it.

[00:10:00]I come back feeling pretty damn fresh, pretty damn good. It was amazing how comfortable the thing was considering it was 21 mil tires, alloy stiff rims, a frame that wouldn't have had any thought about comfort thrown into it, stiff alloy bars, that stem that let's be honest, I shouldn't have really trusted.

[00:10:22]And a saddle that definitely would have got hard over time while being stuck indoors for the past 30 years it's been put into storage. It was surprisingly comfortable even on the cobbles. Nowhere near as much as that Canyon SLX, but you could quite easily ride it for a good few hours and come away feeling relatively fresh. Right, another thing that I think they had 100% right back then was gear ratio. Hear me out here, and I'm guessing there's going to be experts throwing jumping in the comments here saying Dave, you're talking absolute cobblers, but I swear that 39-53 with a close ratio cassette is biomechanically more correct than what we've got on bikes today. I've been riding compact chain sets pretty much since about 2015, shall we say, and I've never got on with any of the multitude of chainring sizes you can get today. The multitude of different cassettes that you can get today. I honestly I'm always feeling that I'm not turning over the right gear, but with that 39-53 close ratio cassette on the back, I just seemed to be able to find the gear that I wanted. Yeah, those 172.5 cranks aren't getting spun over quite as rapidly as your 165s today, especially when it comes to the steeper part of the cobbled climbs.

[00:11:47]That's something I delved into in the Canyon review, link below if you want to know more about that. But biomechanically, argue with me in the comments below, 39-53, we had it right.

[00:11:57]Stiffness, people, I ain't putting out any power. And yeah, it felt a little bit floppy in places. I'm guessing some of that carbon's degraded over time as well. I guess it's nowhere near as stiff as what it used to be. So, well far have we come? We've come far, and we haven't. 36 years is a long time, and bikes have changed a lot in that time. Some of it is genuine change, others is marketing BS.

[00:12:23]Something that I've also delved into in another video, which I'll link below when I tested out a BMC team machine from this year when compared to one from 10 years ago as well. Yeah, you're for a pro on that thing, and they're not going to perform I'm guessing quite as well as they would on a race bike today. But as a nice day out, a fun day out on a bike, you can't beat the KG196, that's for sure. What do you reckon? Have you got an old retro bike sat in the garage at home that you still use? If you have, let me know, please, what it is. I'd love to hear some of your stories in the comments below. Also, am I talking a load of cobblers? Let me know. And also, while you're there, hit that subscribe button. It means a hell of a lot to me at the moment. I'm trying to grow this channel. As for retro bikes, this is the first in what I'm hoping's going to be a series of me getting out on old bikes in a multitude of conditions. I've got a massive idea brewing that I'm working on at the moment, so stay tuned for that.

[00:13:20]But with the help of the good people over at Flandrien Hotel in Belgium, I've got access to things like 200 bikes from the mid-90s all the way up to the 2010s. Stay tuned for the channel for more and as I say, bloody subscribe, people. Okay, that's it from me. Thanks for watching. Enjoy your riding and keep it shreddy.