Comparisons

The next steps were to mount the saddle and assemble the handlbars.The shifter/brake mechanism mounts with a single clamp tightened by a hex bolt. You fold back the rubber hood and the bolt is exposed. Slide the brifter to the position on the bar where you want it and tighten the bolt.

There are four cables that have to be threaded through the brifters and back to the parts that they will operate. There are two on each side, one for a brake, one to operate a derailleur. The right hand operates the rear brake and the rear derailleur, the left hand operates the front. The only even vaguely tricky part is where to position the brifters on the bar. This was made easier for me by the fact that I already had a bike that I deemed to be a near ideal fit. I just compared the parts for the new bike to the parts already on the old bike and positioned the parts similarly. I think I pictured the tool that you see here because it was the same tool that was used both to tighten the clamp on the brifters and to mount the saddle on the seat post.

With the saddle it was merely a matter of getting it level and then positioning the seat post in the seat tube at a point where the saddle was the same distance above the center of the bottom bracket as the saddle bottom bracket distance on my other bike.Here the bicycles are side by side. Note the similarity of geometry of the frames and that the saddle heights are about the same.

I was looking for some more information about the KG381i and found some pictures on cyclingnews. They are copyright so I cannot produce them here. However, I have requested permission from cyclingnews to use the pictures and will post them if and when I get permission.

In the meantime, the Look KG381i was last actually used in the 2002 Tour de France, not the 2003.

Hamilton's solo breakaway was the 16th stage of 2003 and was on a Cervelo. However, in 2002 Laurent Jalabert did win the King of the Mountains competition riding this bike and was rewarded by Look with a special "spotty" bike for the final parade stage into Paris. The downtube message is "Merci Jaja".

The 2002 frame was selected "Bike of the Year", making three straight years that Look won this award. Both CSC Tiscali and Credit Agricole rode on Look KG381i that year and French riders Laurent Jalabert of CSC and Christophe Moreau of Credit Agricole are pictured along with Look's president receiving the award. Although CSC switched to Cervelo the next year, as recently as 2007 Credit Agricole was still riding Look frames.

The Look KG381i is a really nice bicycle, one of the nicest bicycles on the planet.