Question for Christophe re: Lauf

Christophe Noel

Expedition Leader
I should have my full review ready soon, but I can give you my rough evaluation of the Lauf. The first hurdle to evaluating the Carbonara is relative to framing one's expectations. Calling it a "suspension fork" almost sets it up for failure. What would I call it? Dunno. But, it isn't anywhere near the same category of fork as a Bluto, Lefty, or other proper boingy front end.

If I take it for what it is, it's pretty great. I've never liked tweaking my front tire psi as a means of adjusting ride compliance and the Lauf allows me to ride with the pressure I want up front and still have a consistent amount of compliance. On hardpack trails, I tend to run a firmer tire pressure and the Lauf helps cut the edge off the bumps a bit.

At 60mm of "travel" I'm still feeling every tiny bump, but they're just less edgy and sharp. If you think about it, a rock that measures 60mm tall is not very big, so when you hit it at full-tilt-booty, you feel it. The Lauf just softens the impact a smidgen. One bump like that isn't a big deal, but 10,000 of them over the course of a ride, and the Lauf smoothness starts to pay dividends in terms of reduced fatigue.

So, in a nutshell, it's plush, smooth, compliant, but it is not really a suspension fork in the truest sense of the word.

Other upshots include the crazy low weight. It doesn't feel any heavier than the uber-light ridged carbon fork on my Beargrease. I love the zero maintenance or set up. Bolt her on and go. The build quality is also beautiful.

On the downside, and there are downsides, the Carbonara did detune the quick handling of my Beargrease a tiny bit. I have to push my turns a tad harder than before. And this is where the bigger side affect to the Lauf comes in. The lateral flex is noticeable. When climbing I feel it, but...who cares? However, when charging hard at high speed and diving into a hard turn, that flex makes holding a hard line a little tricky. Not only is the geometry more relaxed forcing more power to carve the turn, but the front end is a little vague. The guys testing these forks on snow would never notice, but on my local hardpack trails, many with beautiful high-speed sweeping turns, that flex is noticeable. Not a deal breaker, but a noticeable trade off.

So, overall, I dig it for longer rides particularly where hard-angle bumps are prevalent. I can see why the snow riders like it to soften edgy footprints in hardpack snow. I wanted it for long bikepack miles, and so far it has fit the bill.

If you're a hard charger, want maximum cornering performance and bigger-hit compliance, this isn't the fork for you. Other than that - I like it.
 

jayspies

Adventurer
Awesome insights, thanks for giving us a sneak peek. I'm currently running a converted Lefty on my Mukluk, and while I really like it for high speed chunk slaying, I rarely if ever use it to its maximum; I'm just not that type-A of a rider. Since I got the Lefty fork and hub essentially for free (I bought a used C-Dale Prophet for $275 and then sold the frame for $375), and have about $700 into the clamps and PBR rebuild, I could likely sell it for what the Lauf would cost, so it would be an even swap, so to speak. One of my endgames is bikepacking, and the Lefty is nothing if not heavy. The fork with clamps comes in at just under 2,200g, which is about 2.5 pounds heavier than the Lauf. I think for my riding style and intended uses, the Lauf may be a better fit for me.
 

Christophe Noel

Expedition Leader
I just rolled in from a fun ride. It rained like hell here two days ago, so the trails are like velcro right now. So, I went to one of my favorite "carvey" trails with my Lauf. I noticed one more slight peccadillo. It gets some funky brake dive when you really hammer the brakes going into a turn. Not a big deal, as it isn't often I get this level of traction and can damn near loft the rear wheel in hard braking, but it is noticeable.
 

jayspies

Adventurer
I would wager that comes from the fact that the leaf springs are not tied together in any way. Traditional front shocks have the stanchion bridge which holds the shock tubes together. The Lauf doesn't really have anything of the sort, so I'd imagine that under really heavy braking you might get a bit of lateral wobble as the ground surface varies and weight shifts from side to side. But as you said, a slightly rare occurrence. Were you riding it on the BG, or some other bike?
 

Christophe Noel

Expedition Leader
I would wager that comes from the fact that the leaf springs are not tied together in any way. Traditional front shocks have the stanchion bridge which holds the shock tubes together. The Lauf doesn't really have anything of the sort, so I'd imagine that under really heavy braking you might get a bit of lateral wobble as the ground surface varies and weight shifts from side to side. But as you said, a slightly rare occurrence. Were you riding it on the BG, or some other bike?
I was on the BG, which is a great test platform for the fork as the whole bike is stiff as a plank. For how the Lauf is designed, the lateral stiffness is actually impressive, just more pronounced than it is on a standard suspension fork.
 

jayspies

Adventurer
Great post, thanks Christophe. Good, objective comments. Did the A/C distance compared to the stock Makwa raise or lower the BB to any discernable degree or affect HT angles? It's hard to tell from pictures how adding a Lauf changes geo, if any.
 

Co-opski

Expedition Leader

Christophe Noel

Expedition Leader
Great post, thanks Christophe. Good, objective comments. Did the A/C distance compared to the stock Makwa raise or lower the BB to any discernable degree or affect HT angles? It's hard to tell from pictures how adding a Lauf changes geo, if any.
No significant alteration to HT height. Slight increase to my wheelbase. The net effect was a noticeable decrease in my handling precision. The front feels less snappy, but that's me being pretty nit picky. There is also a tiny bit of dive under hard braking.

I guess I'd say this, I ride the poo out of this Beargrease. We have hundreds of miles of fast, swoopy hardpack with tons of long climbs and descents. So, I probably push this harder than some might, I don't know. Not to say I'm a Billy ************, that's not it. Our trails just invite more speed, harder braking, fast turns, etc. Those scenarios probably don't play to the strengths of the Carbonara.

There is also some learned technique to riding the Lauf. Because there is no damping, when I see a huge hit coming, I have learned to let my arms react to that impact a little differently, kind of the difference between riding rigid and a regular 100-120mm suspension fork. I have to let my arms soak up that rebound force a bit, which is certainly less of an effort than soaking up the full impact with a rigid fork. Just a difference in riding technique.

I like it. Do I like it enough to justify the $1000???? Ugh. That I do not know. I would love to have the gravel fork on my gravel bike. That seems like a great application. I will say this, dollar per dollar, adding Whisky carbon rims to my bike made the most significant improvement to the way the bike rides. That was a huge upgrade.
 

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