In the days before the UCI stepped in and quashed the use of non-structural components on bikes, Look was making its bikes more slippery by adding fairings to its machines.
Now a Look time trial bike used by Laurent Jalabert in the 1996 season has come up for sale on eBay. Coming in Jalabert’s Once livery, the bike boasts some impressively deep fairings to make it more slippery as well as 3T Crono aerobars on Look’s proprietary Ergo stem.
You get Jalabert's name on the top tube - and a few scratches
The eBay listing says that the bike comes with its original parts, including a Dura-Ace R7410 chainset and derailleurs and, of course, Look 286 clipless pedals. The only part that looks incongruous to a modern cyclist is the chunky Selle San Marco Rolls saddle.
We saw a similar TT machine when we toured Look’s factory a couple of years ago. That bike was made in 1995 and used by time trial specialist Alex Zulle. Underneath the fairings, there’s a round titanium tube set. The rear wheel is 650c and the front wheel is 600c. The bike is designed to present a low cross-sectional area of only 28mm.
The eBay listing says that the bike ridden by Jalabert is in used condition, with a few scratches. It’s unlikely that the titanium frame has suffered many ill effects over the years though.
But you’ll need deep pockets if you want to own this piece of cycling history. The seller, based in Santander, Spain, has the bike listed at $17,500 – enough to buy you a pretty decent modern time trial bike.
The sale closes on January 6th.
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Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.
He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.
