From Pinarello to Factor, Cervelo to Wilier, countless dropbar brands have recently entered the mountain bike world. Now Lauf Cycles, the Icelandic brand best known for its zero-maintenance leaf-sprung gravel forks, has returned to the discipline where it first began.
If the image above hasn’t already made it obvious, Lauf Cycles is known for doing things differently. It was arguably the first brand to succeed in adding front suspension to modern gravel bikes. They currently offer a carbon gravel race bike that clears 29 x 2.25″ tyres, something pro gravel racers just started begging for this season, but Lauf has been selling that bike since 2022. Since then, the company expanded into tarmac riding with its Uthald road bike that’s equally as unapologetically unique. And being consumer-direct, it’s a brand that is unusually a price leader despite being an innovator, too.
With all of this in mind and knowing the bike wasn’t going to be cookie-cutter, I flew across the world to attend a launch of Lauf’s first mountain bike. It’s always enlightening whenever the opportunity arises to see the local terrain and conditions that bike designers aim to solve for, and certainly, Iceland is a unique place that seemingly influences unique bikes. In this case, it’s a do-it-all cross-country bike with a few twists.
Please note that while this article is in-depth, it isn’t intended to be a full review. The bike’s pre-production rear end and an ill-timed bout of the flu mean there’s more to come at a later point.
In addition to this article, there’s a bonus episode of the Geek Warning podcast where I chat with the founder and R&D lead at Lauf Cycles about this new bike, the company, wide tyres, and a few related topics. Non-members of Escape Collective can listen to roughly half of the episode here, but you’ll need to be a member to get the whole show.
What it is: Lauf Cycles’ entry into mountain biking is a versatile 120 mm-travel carbon full suspension 29er with a focus on simplicity and open compatibility if tyre widths trend wider.
Interim highs: Leading levels of tyre clearance, proven geometry, incredible pricing, easiest full suspension linkage to service on the market, not like everything else.
Interim lows: Caveats around bottle fitment, wireless shifting only, linkage design needs a lockout (ideally an automated one like tested!) for great efficiency, will tyres continue to get wider in XC?
Pricing: Complete bikes start from US$4,590. The top-end option, as being tested, is US$8,290.
Key details on the Elja
In anticipation of Lauf lifting the cover from the bike, I had expected something that drew on Lauf’s glass-fibre leaf spring experience. Perhaps a bike that took the flexible chainstay (used in countless XC bikes of today) to another level or even one without any main/lower pivot point at all. Alas, it wasn’t that. Rather, Lauf released a bike design that is arguably best described as a welcomed throwback merged with many of the latest features and geometry.
Indeed, the new Elja (pronounced El-ee-ya) is a traditional and true single-pivot full suspension bike, with the singular pivot point placed forward of and above the chainring. The full carbon frame offers a claimed 120 mm of rear wheel travel, while up front, the bikes can be purchased with either a 120 mm fork (cross-country models) or a 130 mm fork (trail models). Each of the four frame sizes roll on 29er wheels, with the tyre clearance so big it gets its own article section.
Single pivots still exist from other brands (most notably British manufacturer Orange), but over the past decade (or more) they’ve largely fallen out of favour for more complicated designs that sought to better isolate the impact of pedalling and braking forces on the suspension, adjust how the travel of a bike is used, provide better-bracing stiffness, and in some cases, change where the shock sits in the bike. By contrast, Lauf Cycles’ founder Benedikt Skúlason believes the latest crop of tuneable and automatically controlled suspension components can largely help to achieve what some of those more complicated suspension linkage designs aim to do, and saw an opportunity to return to a single-pivot design that’s undeniably simpler to maintain. That simplicity also leads to efficiencies seen in the pricing, too.
The frame design may be simple, but a quick look reveals significant tube profiles throughout, including an enormous and largely uninterrupted down tube that just about swallows the relatively standard tapered head tube whole. Out back, the bike’s rear end is quite the structure, with plenty of carbon stiffly bridging between the asymmetric left and right sides of the rear wheel.
With just one pivot point to tie the front and rear triangles together, Lauf has somewhat humorously decided to give the bike a second bottom bracket. Indeed, the main pivot of this bike is an actual SRAM DUB English-threaded bottom bracket, just like the one between the crankset. According to Lauf, apart from making not a full rotation, the forces put through this main pivot are extremely similar to those demanded of a bottom bracket and so the decision was just too obvious. With just a couple of hex keys and a regular bottom bracket tool required for replacement, the Elja offers the simplest bearing replacement of any bike on the market.
It’s a stiff connection between the two carbon frame ends, but a single pivot design like this can still flex enough to put unwanted side loads into the rear shock. To counter this, Lauf separated the stiff section of the rear end and the part that ties into the rear shock. Here, two incredibly thin arms of carbon fibre extend forward and are intentionally designed to flex side-to-side before those forces reach the shock. Grabbing the rear wheel and forcibly pushing and pulling it sideways reveals this solution works elegantly.
Both front and rear triangles are carbon fibre, but Lauf keeps things relatively simple in terms of the materials used. As a company, they’ve historically avoided using high-modulus carbon fibres that save weight, rather sticking with more mid-range stuff that’s less brittle to impact. Similarly, they’re not fans of frame storage hatches in carbon frames for how it breaks the flow of fibres and the reinforcements needed to overcome that. A side perk to the use of mid-range fibres and fewer frame features is that the frames are no doubt cheaper to produce, too.
Big tube profiles and a relatively standard layup mix mean the Elja doesn’t set any new benchmarks for weight. Lauf claims a painted medium frame weighs 1,950 grams without rear shock or thru-axle. By contrast, some of the very lightest (and most expensive) cross-country frames, such as the Specialized S-Works Epic 8 and Yeti ASR Turq hover around the 1,550 gram mark without a shock, however most bikes raced at a World Cup level typically sit closer to where the well-priced Elja has landed. While it may never happen, Skúlason has teased that a more-premium and -delicate high-modulus layup and lighter paint could be done in future to save approximately 200 and 50 grams, respectively.
Other frame details include cable ports on the side of the head tube, leaving a regular headset to do its job as engineers first intended. However, there are just two ports: one for the rear brake (it’s internally guided) and another for a mechanical dropper post if you choose to ditch the RockShox AXS Reverb wireless version that’s supplied with all models(!). For those doing the math, that leaves no cable port for mechanical shifting, nor any provision for a cable-actuated rear shock lockout.
More tyre clearance than an open-wheeler
Less seen today, Lauf has adopted an elevated chainstay design on the driveside of the bike. It’s a decision that was largely made to overcome the common design issue of having to squeeze a chainstay in between the chainring and tyre. By getting the chainstay away from that location, Lauf found freedom in adding more tyre clearance than any other cross-country bike on the market. And while Skúlason merely laughed at the suggestion, it also means you can remove a closed chain from the bike (say, for waxing) by only undoing a derailleur pulley wheel.
OK, let’s talk about that tyre clearance.
Lauf strongly believes that tyres in cross country should trend wider than the current status quo of 29 x 2.3-2.4″ and they’ve provided the space in case others agree. Officially, all sizes of the Elja can fit up to 29 x 3.0″ tyres in the rear end and still meet ISO standards. Yep, a tyre so big it has its own naming class: 29 Plus.
It was a few years ago that a few big players (namely Trek and Specialized) made a big push to sell mountain bikes with Plus-sized tyres. Most of the effort (but not all) was put into hardtails, aiming to bring some extra suspension into otherwise rigid bikes. Trek had the most success of it, and continues to produce a few such bikes, but the idea largely failed due to hefty tyre weights, sensitivity to ideal tyre pressure, and just a general lack of great benefit.
While there’s a decent choice for trail-oriented tyres in 2.6″ and even 2.8″ widths, it’s currently slim pickings for lightweight race-focussed tyres in anything larger than a 29 x 2.4″. Specialized has been teasing a 29 x 2.5″ prototype tyre in World Cups, and Lauf seems confident the trend will continue. The biggest barrier to those choices currently is a lack of race-focussed bikes that can fit much wider than 29 x 2.4″, but hey, someone had to be first.
While not going the full hog, all Elja bikes will ship with a new 29 x 2.6″ version of the Goodyear Peak cross-country tyre, a size that Lauf worked with the tyre specialist to put into production. Bigger it may be, but the tyre measures in at an actual 2.52″ (64 mm) on a 30 mm-width rim, and so the difference to say a worn-in Maxxis 29 x 2.4″ isn’t all that significant.
It’s worth noting that while the clearance is all there, Lauf also hasn’t made any big bets regarding doing anything funky with the cranks, wheel-spacing (it’s Boost), or matching of the geometry to make such clearance happen. Instead, the figures largely align with and follow a number of other popular progressive-type cross-country bikes (such as the Scot Spark and Specialied Epic 8). For the XC versions with the 120 mm fork on front, the bikes offer a 66° head angle, while the extra 10 mm of travel on the Trail versions slackens that figure to 65.6° (along with slackening the seat angle and raising the bottom bracket). Reach figures grow with 30 mm increments through the four sizes, while the rear chainstay lengths remain unchanged at 435 mm in each size.
A shock where the bottles typically go
Today, many cross-country bikes have settled on copying the flexstay linkage-driven shock layout that manages to fit two water bottles within the main triangle. Perhaps the most obvious compromise to Lauf’s single pivot suspension design is the limitation of having the shock sit front and centre—right where most bikes place the bottles.
Despite this, Lauf claims that all four sizes of the Elja can carry three bottles, but there are some obvious caveats to such a claim.
In order to fit two within the main triangle, you must use the bottles and accompanying magnetic mounting system from Fidlock. The small and medium frame sizes can fit the 450 ml versions of the bottle. Meanwhile, the two larger frame sizes can, according to Lauf, carry one 450 ml, and up to a 750 ml Fidlock. Meanwhile, mounts at the base of the down tube exist if you don’t mind covering a bottle in whatever flings off your front wheel.
If you don’t like Fidlock’s bottles (there are reasons, which I’ll include in the future full bike review), then you’ll likely be forced to use the upside-down cage position to carry a regular bottle in a side-access cage. Larger frame sizes may be more tolerant, but my medium bike is too tight on space to use even a regular 500 ml bottle in the preferred down tube position (forward of the shock).
Being in Australia this limitation over the size and type of bottles I can carry is a true sticking point of the bike – it gets hot here. However, having just been in Iceland where clean drinking water is often found running alongside the trail (or falling from the sky), I can at least understand why the folk at Lauf didn’t make it a priority feature above all else.
Impressive pricing and build kits
For such a small company, Lauf Cycles does an impressive job of high-end builds at surprisingly low prices. As discussed in the bonus episode of the Geek Warning podcast, Skúlason explained that the consumer-direct business model is certainly one factor, as is the build-to-order assembly of the bikes. Other savings are seen through simple single-colour paint options (of which there are four), a more limited size range, that simpler suspension design, a single frame design that’s available in only a standard carbon lay-up, and more.
Lauf assembles and ships all of its bikes out of its facility in Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA. Before I start quoting prices, it’s worth noting that you can expect to add a US$99 express shipping fee, plus whatever local sales taxes may apply in your region (Lauf handles duties and other unexpected costs at its end which are included in the price). Lauf lists all of its prices in USD, so I’ll stick to that.
It’s also worth noting that while Lauf is accepting bike orders, the first delivery isn’t expected until February 2025.
Whether you’re looking at the cross-country (120 mm fork) or trail (130 mm fork) bikes, all build kits slant to the trail end of things. Regardless of price point, Lauf impressively equips each bike with an ultra-premium RockShox Reverb AXS (wireless) dropper post and its own 35 mm carbon handlebar that sits at a cut-ready 780 mm width. There’s a stubby FSA 50 mm stem on all sizes except the small one that comes with a 35 mm length.
The SRAM brakes are the four-piston variant, and matched with bigger 180 mm rotors front and rear. And of course, those 2.6″ (claimed) Goodyear Peak 120 tpi tyres carry a little more bulk, too. All of these little choices do add up, and as tested, the complete Elja XC Ultimate Flight Attendant weighs 11.35 kg (without pedals or cages, but with a battery of batteries).
The most affordable Elja option is the Weekend Warrior Transmission that sits within the Trail range. At US$4,590, you get a bike with a RockShox Pike Select 130 mm fork, RockShox SIDLuxe Select+ 2 Position rear shock, SRAM GX Eagle Transmission Wireless shifting, and DT Swiss M1900 wheels. Spend US$5,890, and the Trail Race model escalates things way more than I had expected, giving a marginally better fork, upgrading the components to SRAM X0 Transmission, giving you a single-sided powermeter, and Zipp HiTop S carbon wheels.
Then there are the two more-premium options, each available in XC (120 mm front) or Trail (130 mm front) variants, and all with RockShox’s Ultimate-level AXS Flight Attendant suspension. At US$6,990, the Race Flight Attendant has SRAM X0 Transmission, a single-sided powermeter, and Zipp HiTop S carbon wheels. The US$8,290 Elja Ultimate Flight Attendant (in for test) swaps in a SRAM XX SL Transmission group, including the spider-based powermeter.
Of course things are never purely apples-to-apples when comparing prices, but for a little comparison, a new Specialized Epic 8 Expert retails for US$7,000, it features a competitive carbon wheelset, but that price also only gets you mid-range RockShox SID suspension, an X-Fusion dropper, and SRAM GX Transmission. Spend US$9,000 for the Epic 8 Pro, and while it’s a lovely bike, you’re still not getting premium Flight Attendant suspension or an AXS seatpost. In Specialized’s range, you need to spend US$14,500 for the S-Works Epic 8 for a bike with the flgaship SRAM/RockShox AXS package that Lauf’s Ultimate builds offers (again, at US$8,290).
Perhaps one of the nearest competitor points comes from fellow consumer-direct brand, Canyon. Its cross-country bike range in the USA is limited and so there is no direct comparison point, but US$7,000 gets you the Lux World Cup CFR Team which features a full Shimano XTR 12-speed mechanical groupset, nice DT Swiss wheels, and top-tier Fox cross-country suspension. However, Lauf’s pricing begins to shine when you consider the Canyon doesn’t include a dropper, and that SRAM’s AXS Transmission is vastly more expensive than Shimano mechanical. The same story rings true for RockShox’s Flight Attendant suspension versus mechanical lockout variants.
There are many ways to cut these apples, but either way, the Lauf represents stellar value for money.
Early impressions
With just a few rides on the bike and a few elements of the rear triangle expected to change, it’s simply too early to wrap this one up. However, those first few rides have been largely positive, and I haven’t yearned for a bike with more pivot points.
RockShox’s Flight Attendant suspension (reviewed previously) is undoubtedly playing a large part in that happy experience. Lauf designed its Elja to run 30% sag on the 45 mm stroke shock, and while that would typically create a rather active (bobby) ride under pedalling, the automated electronic suspension does a huge amount to counter such potentially negative attributes.
As expected, the rather proven geometry figures leave little room for complaint and go a long way to making this bike more capable than you may expect for just 120 mm of rear wheel travel (a statement that is true for many newer cross-country bikes). I immediately felt at home with the fit and handling, although I prefer a narrower (and more flexible) handlebar combined with a size up in stem length (depending on the application).
I have many more thoughts to share (and questions in my mind to test for), but I’ll save those for when I get the production-ready rear end and pivot hardware on the bike. For now, the Elja has me thinking about two questions that are worth asking yourself.
Firstly, how critical it is to be able to carry two standard-sized water bottles within the main triangle on a modern cross-country bike? As someone who dislikes things on my back and who lives in a part of the world where water isn’t always abundant, it’s a pretty important criterion. Is it critical to you?
The second question is perhaps one we’ll only be able to answer a few years from now: will tyres in this riding category continue to trend even wider?
Disclosure: Lauf Cycles’ launch for this bike was in Iceland. Lauf covered the cost of Dave Rome’s return flights and travel expenses for the days of the event.
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