Price Paid:  $0.00 at .

Bike Setup:
2003 Ksyriums, Full Campy Record, Time peddles, Carbon ITM Mellenium bars. Weighs in at about 16.6lb for a 53cm

Summary:
Simply sweet! I currently ride a Time VXR which I love for my hard rides. However, it is a bit less complient than my Time VX Special Pro.

With that said I was looking for a second bike that was compliant, unqiue, and comfortable to "cruise" on. I do believe I have found it. I have ridden the Look 481 for a few hundred miles now and I really enjoy it. I almost look for bumps to hit just to see if it will be harsh.

Compfort wise it is the best I have riden. It will still get up and go when you need it to. Lateral stiffness I would say is simular to my '03 Orbea Starship Carbon (AL from Carbon rear). I honestly have a hard time picking which bike to ride. I still tend to lean towards the Time if I know it will be a hard pace and the Look for everything else.

I really think the Look 481 is my favorite all around bike.

Strengths:
Smooth on the road, great geometry, gorgeuos finish. Mine is painted like the one above with the blue and white looks great!

Weaknesses:
Not too sure of the adjustable rear dropouts. I don't plan to fiddle with them. I ordered some replacements just incase I can't them in a few years. Ordered an extra seat binder/shim just incase I have to drill out the original if it siezes.

The FSA crown race in combination with the HSC4 fork (2004 model, caused a 3mm gap between the headset and the fork. I used 200 grit sand paper and about 2 hours of figure 8 swirls to sand 2.5mm or so off of the metal crown race. I slid the race back on and it now it has a nice smmoth "look" with about a 1mm gap.

Similar Products Used:
04 Time VXR, 04 Time VX Special Pro, 03 Orbea Star Ship Carbon, 03 Bianchi Carbon XL, 01 Bianchi EV2, 99 Bianchi Shotping, 99 Binachi Alloro.

Price Paid:  $2200.00 at LBS

Favorite Ride:
Anywhere

Bike Setup:
Full Dura Ace including DA-7800 Wheelset, except FSA Compact Carbon Crank; FSA Carbon Bar, Speedplay pedals

Summary:
Sweet Bike. Very stiff, but super smooth at the same time. Climbing is a pleasure, and noticeably easier and faster than on my custom steel. Smoother on the rough stuff than the steel, but you still feel the road. Laid back seat tube angle actually shortens the effective top tube length, not lengthens. You will have to move the seat forward to achieve the same knee-over-pedal position as compared to a more upright bike. The slack head tube (on a 54cm or smaller bike) will result in more trail, making it much more stable and predictable in turns (but still goes right where you point it - the perfect balance).

Strengths:
See Review Summary - Great ride, almost surreal ability to be a stiff climing mountain goat, a point and shoot descending monster, and a plush cruiser all at the same time. How can that be? On top of that its got a beautiful finish and comes in 3 awesome color schemes. Also its very unique (at least in US). You wont see too many of these out there.

Weaknesses:
*Seat Binder Bolt area kind of cheesy

*Non-Standard 25 MM seat post limits
choices (not a big deal - Look post is nice)

*5 year warranty - Come on Look/Veltec - You've been building Carbon bikes before anyone - 5 years is fine, but your competitors are giving lifetime.

*French (just kidding)

Similar Products Used:
Eisentraut Custom, Colnago C-50, Trek 5200,

Price Paid:  $2000.00 at River City Cycles

Favorite Ride:
long long climbs

Bike Setup:
Look 481SL frame, full DuraAce except for FSA carbon cranks, Kestrel carbon bar, DA hubs/Velocity rims.

Summary:
Excellent frame! Ride stiff yet smooth. Perfect combination of qualities. Longer relative top tube than most (and I like that). 17 pounds fully built with DuraAce and Speedplays. Begs to go out for long climbs and then descends steady and smooth as glass. Look has an excellent reputation in the pro peleton. Took it to France several months ago to ride the south coast and alps... I couldn't be happier with this bike.

Strengths:
Light. Carbon. Stiff. Smooth as butter. Excellent craftsmanship and beautiful finish.

Weaknesses:
None. Some may baulk at the price but it's worth every cent.

Similar Products Used:
Look 281, Trek 5500, Litespeed Classic, Peugeot PX-10, Comotion Supremeo Tandem.

Price Paid:  $781.00 at eBay

Favorite Ride:
Tour de Tucson

Bike Setup:
Jalabert finish KG481SL
HSC4SL fork
Dura Ace drivetrain
FSA team carbon cranks
Cinelli Ram bar stem
SLR saddle with USE alien carbon post
Mavic Kysrium SSL with pro race tires
Nimble Crosswind tubies as race wheels

Summary:
Bought a 2003 KG381 on ebay and after recieving it sent it to Veltec for a warranty replacement. Veltec hooked me up with a new KG481SL as a replacement. Too cool. Bike built up really nice. A little thick on the powder coat, so the recessed brake bolts didn't fit till some powder coat was removed, but other than that a perfect frame prep for the build. The bike ride is fantastic. Very mature feeling bike. Not twitchy, not overly stable. That is the best description I can give. Out of the saddle it is very rigid in the BB. The biggest negative I had with this bike is the pinch style bolt used for securing the seatpin. I use a USE alien carbon post, and the only way to get it to secure the seatpin was to torque it down so much it left an indentation in the carbon. Yikes, but we will see how it works.

One not to potential buyers...the top tubes are very long in proportion, so I ended up having to go one size down from my Kestrel which was a 54 to a 53 to maintain the same top tube length. Total build weight with Nimble race wheels was 15.5 pounds. With Mavic K's it was 15.7 pounds.

Strengths:
Finish is super durable and nice looking.
Very stiff BB that feels great on climbs
Adjustable rear dropouts let you change chainstay length from 40cm to 41cm.

Weaknesses:
Cost at full retail would be a killer
Longer top tubes forced me to downsize frame.
Seatpost is 25.0 which limits selections
Seatpost binder is antequated at best and really doesn't perform well for me.

Similar Products Used:
Kestrel 200Sci
2000 Giant TCR team