The LOOK KG86 was the first carbon fibre bicycle to win the Tour de France, ridden to victory by the American Greg LeMond. But we’re not going to talk about my amazing bike this week – we’re going to zero in on those world changing pedals!
When I was road and track racing as a kid in Australia in the 1980s I was using a system of strapping my feet to my bike that had remained largely unchanged for almost a century.
In the 1890s toe clips and straps were first adopted and fixed to bicycle pedals. A slotted cleat was bolted to the sole of the shoe that fitted over the backplate of the pedal. Then a leather strap was tightened so that the foot was held firmly in place.
But there was one problem–since the toe clips were screwed to the pedals, the rider was similarly screwed should they need to disengage in a hurry.
I remember several occasions in which I crashed in races as a teenager, lying in a bloodied and tangled pile of kids who still had their feet firmly lashed to their bikes.
Some of the biggest innovation in cycling have come from adjacent industries, and it was snow sport that influenced a much-needed overhaul of the bicycle pedal by a Frenchman named Jean Beyl.
An innovator in the ski binding business for more than two decades, Beyl’s early 1980s pedal design used a triangular plastic cleat bolted to the sole of the shoe that snapped into spring-loaded jaws, releasing with a twist of the ankle. The design was much easier to engage and release, provided better power tranfer and was safer in crashes.
The LOOK PP65 clipless pedal was launched in 1984, but the conservative world of cycling ignored it at first. It wasn’t until Bernard Hinault won his fifth and final Tour de France on them in 1985 that other pro teams really took notice.
The next year Greg LeMond also won using LOOK pedals, attached to the ground-breaking carbon fibre LOOK KG86 bike of the LOOK La Via Claire team. With main tubes manufactured by French aerospace company TVT, the bike firmly established LOOK as a pioneer in the carbon frame building business too.
LOOK’s pedals have remained a benchmark for rival manufacturers ever since they were invented, and the company has now been at the forefront of innovation in carbon frameset design for more than three decades. That’s why we’ve got a dozen LOOK bicycles in our Flandrien Hotel collection.
Oh, and a piece of trivia – Stephen Roche in 1987 was the last rider to win the Tour de France using toe-clips and straps, but some riders remained stubbornly loyal to the old ways. Irishman Sean Kelly famously continued using toe-clips and straps until 1993.
