Lauf Carbonara Fork Preview by – Kevin Breitenbach

The postman told me that I had a large package…at the airport post office. I promptly drove down and retrieved a rather large, yet feather light package. Uncle Gomez sent me up a Lauf Carbonara fork to test. I was expecting a used and somewhat tortured demo unit, but I found a brand new fork in the box.

As the story tells it on their website http://www.laufforks.com/ the idea all started in 2010. Based out of Iceland; a land of the midnight sun, geothermal features, and nasty north atlantic weather,  some bike loving engineers wanted change the way riders looked at bike suspension.

always

Considering the relatively short period of time developing a product that is an out of the box idea. The product looks very refined, while the box and packaging is rather nice, their sense of humor is evident immediately. #keepfatbikesfun.

Inside the box there’s setup instructions and a user’s guide to assure proper use of the fork. (more sense of humor.)

The Lauf Carbonara is in a league of its own in the world of suspension forks. It’s an interesting take, based on leaf spring design in which the wheel has 60mm of simple, maintenance free travel.

Picking it up, it’s astoundingly light.  Without a 15mm thru axle it weighs in at a minimal 1096 grams. That’s only 398 grams heavier than a Fatback rigid carbon fork. It’s also about 700 grams less Bluto than a Bluto.

The Carbonara has a tapered steer tube and 150mm hub spacing just like the Bluto. If you’re into measurements, it’s 494mm from axle to crown and it has a 51 mm rake. It requires using at least a180mm brake rotor.

It has tire clearance for up to 26” x 4.8” (on first inspection, it clears a 5” Dillinger on an 80mm with plenty of room to spare) or 29”x 3.0” tires for fast summer riding.

I’m looking forward to getting a report back to Fat-bike.com headquarters after the last throws of winter hangings on through April here in Fairbanks. I look forward to riding the Lauf in a lot of different conditions during a nasty shoulder season that begs to ruin bike components. Truth be told, I hope for a quick Spring time break up so I can ride this thing on our rocky ridgelines that are only exposed when the sun lingers late into the night. This should be a lot of fun.