For light bikepacking it would be good too, in fact it’d be as good as quite a few older geometry XC bikes on MTB trails. On long rides my Titanium Tripster would be better balanced but for fun blasts and racing about on gravel and even on road this bike is great. It’s that kind of bike that puts a smile on your face (even though I only rode it in terrential rain!). You can also hop the bike about like a MTB and drift the corners in control due in part to the fork. ![]() The low weight means lightning acceleration. Stable in the wet, super smooth and very fast on all surfaces. I don’t know American classic wheels but hear they are a reliable strong but light wheelset. A great choice on this bike with their low weight and fast pick up. Light reliable American Classic race wheelset in Alu as more compliant on gravel than stiffer carbon wheels. Sram Force Hydro groupset with 1X11 and the vital 10:42 cassette on the backĬarbon post, bars EC70 and cranks EC90 all from Easton The build I rode was the racer build with Like the BSA threaded BB on the frame as opposed to a push fit BB, it adds cost and weight, while others say no to these details, Lauf say yes we want the best bike not the cheapest or lightest which is refreshing. The frame comes with 3 bottle cage mounts (I wouldn’t consider less on a new frame) plus a useful bottle cage mount on the top tube for a bento box or luggage cage or even another bottle). Especially useful for after the Eurobike show each evening! If you choose to run 1x transmission then the bolt on mount for a front derailleur comes with a bottle opener for post ride beers. It’s a straighter stiffer fork after the recent revisions they made to the Grit fork to improve stiffness. Then their Grit fork on the front with its leaf suspension adds the final comfort and compliance on rough stuff. To compensate for the rigidity of carbon and to give more compliance they use skinny seat stays, super skinny seatpost diameter 27.2 and carbon post. I would say most gravel bikes are still steeper angles making them twitchy and basically just road bikes on gravel the Lauf isn’t that. The head angle is 70.5 degrees so again spot on. It works well, a cross over from where mountain bikes have gone in recent years. The geometry is long for stability and speed. The tyre clearance is for 45mm so plenty of space there for proper gravel tyres. The frame is light at 1070gm for medium and you’ll not get much lighter than this anywhere on a gravel strength frame. It’s slick and smooth lines, the internal cable routing is super tidy, unfortunately this should be a given but looking around Eurobike it’s not something that everyone gets right with cables. I would be a good test of this bike even before the heavy rain came….and never stopped!įirst up the bike looks stunning, I did think they could have gone further with the frame/fork integration styling but there’s enough there. ![]() The route home each night involved tarmac, cobbles, beautiful Strada Bianchi style white gravel roads and then some dirt and pot holes. ![]() I was staying in Austria over 40km from the show in Germany so they lent me a bike to test.
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