From the early days of its Trail Racer mountain bike fork, Lauf has always done things a little differently. The Grit fork in 2016 brought the company much more attention and kudos, and it has followed this up with a gravel specific race bike, the True Grit. Mountain biker Tom Marvin, and Roadie Ben Delaney give their opinions on this striking bike.
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Why didn’t they make a leafspring chainstay/seat stay? Missed opportunity!
Was this filmed before the release of the rear road clutch derailleur? One X systems don’t make sense to me either. More gears better chain line and smaller jumps between gears.
Great video
This fork on a i think its called BMC softtail or something like that could be really nice.
Great review guys! I like the take from both aspects. Where was the footage shot from the States? Looked like AZ, looked like fun.
Really weird to take the bike to task over sram shifting style. You could say that about the majority of the gravel bikes on the market.
Pretty exciting gravel bike!
Put some 650b wheels and tyres on that…
Great idea to have two opinions. More reviews like this please.
You don’t have half the gears with 1 by, there are many overlapping gears
How does it compare to the cannondale slate?
I totally agree with Ben on 1x drivetrains. They work on mountain bikes and cyclocross race bikes well, but are incredibly idiotic on gravel bikes. I know, let’s remove gears on a bike meant to go everywhere to make it less capable of going everywhere! I will NEVER buy into 1x drivetrains on a gravel bike, I enjoy my dual chainrings thank you.
I like it, BUT really, bigger tyres, or 650b, plus double bartape, will be more use.
What if the world ends when a gray haired guy misses a shift??!!!?!?
1x sucks.
Never expected to get analyses of damping spectrum on frequency domain on a bike review! Loved it!
Nice pants dude!
How does it compare with the suspension on the new SpZ Diverge?
These guys set the standard. Top job. Probably the only reviewers I’d trust to make a purchase without a test ride of my own.
Superb, well balanced review and some of the most watchable specialist content I’ve seen for a while. Top job.
So, the ride up front is softened, all Lauf is missing is a double-seat ‘a la the Grail’
Probably one of the most innovative suspension designs. Amazing review!
I’ve been using a Lauf gravel fork on my gravel bike for about 6 months now and I absolutely love it, at first I wasn’t too sure about the bizarre design but overtime I really started to like how different it was. The ride is smooth on most gravel terrains but it still doesn’t completely take away the challenge and fun of gravel riding and having the option to ride both on paved roads as well as off road has made my rides that much more enjoyable and opened up new paths and I often overtake roadies by crossing grass, gravel or just by jumping up and down curbs.
“dainty roady guy”
Was that a joke? The roadie looks bigger to me
Sheesh! It’s a gravel race bike. Have a couple of gravel racers review this puppy. Not grandpa roady and Drop Master B.
They grey haired dude knows what he’s talking about.
I feel those leaf spring forks are a bit comical and besides more vibration can only be good for your bone strength
Quirky. But hey, it seems to work
1x doesn’t have half the gears of 2x, it typically has 3-4 fewer gears. 2x systems have a lot of redundancy. When I converted my mtb from 2×10 to 1×10, I only lost 3 gears, (2 low, 1 high,) and when I converted my road bike, I only lost the top three gears, (which were worthless for me anywhere but downhill.)
Often unacknowledged or simply not known, is the slight suspension benefit at the rear wheel of a hardtail gets when using front suspension. The bike will pivot underneath you so the fulcrum will be your bottom bracket (when standing) or your seat (when sitting) whereas normally when hitting a bump at the rear wheel the front wheel’s hub would be the fulcrum. Unfortunately because you have much less leverage against the front wheel’s suspension compared to a direct hit at the front wheel the effect is maybe 1/3rd to 1/5th (depending if you’re standing or sitting) – so incredibly marginal, but it is there.
In the same camp as Ben for the most part, but I also really get Tom’s enthusiasm.
that bottle opener is really nice ^^
Love the quality of review from Bike Radar. Ben’s apprehension from the perspective of a road biker is understandable, but so is the conclusion on it being the perfect MTB for a roadie. He should consider throwing on some 28c GP 4000 SII and doing a long normal road ride. I suspect comparable performance even though it feels mushy compared to a road race bike. Loving my Titanium monstercross bike with the Lauf LTR 275 as the ‘everything but very fast’ bike. Swapping between 700c slicks and 650b 2.4″ tires is a fun capability to end N+1.
I think it looks quite nice.
Having ridden a Laugh fork on an XC hardtail…I hate how much sideways flex it has.
would be interesting to know how it would work along something like treks isospeed rear
Nice, diverse reviews; and I could care less about gravel bikes
This is by far the best review that BikeRadar has ever put out. The information was valuable and well-presented by great presenters, and the personalities were entertaining. It’s up there among the best bike reviews I have ever watched. Good job, guys!
Don’t lowf at my fawk ….. What’s ya call a watered down mountain bike ? A Fountain Bike
I’m so confused . Is it red or pink?