A deep dive into the design philosophy of Lauf Bicycles, one of the most innovative and recognizable bikes and suspension forks on the market today. "Benni" is the founder and tells us about the engineering and choices they have made and also why they have decided to move some operations to the USA along with Iceland. Big thanks to Benni for taking the time to take a deep dive with us geek out on engineering, logistics, and functional design. www.laufcycles.com/
Benni messaged us after the interview and had specific numbers on the watts of drag on exposed hoses. "After the talk I went to our Úthald site and re-visited our routing calculations. I'd say the spectrum of 0.1-0.3W is what you can realistically expect from routing 2 brake hoses through the headset of a race gravel/road bike"
Lauf on Instagram - / laufcycles
Brett on Instagram - / zentriathlon
Kai on Instagram - / kai_blankner1
Support ZenDurance on Patreon! - / zentri
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro and how we got here
02:45 - Texas and the gravel racing scene
06:53 - Evolution of tire clearance in just 4 years
08:25 - How Benni got started engineering with bikes
14:23 - Brett's dad teaching him structural engineering concepts
15:00 - How glass fibers are different than carbon fiber
19:10 - Why Lauf forks are great for gravel
23:20 - TIRE WIDTHS (Yes!) and how Iceland terrain taught them wider is better
27:20 - Moving assembly operations to Virginia
32:50 - Lauf's endurance road bike pricing and performance
35:00 - What type of carbon fiber is best for off road
45:30 - Simple cable design and saving watts vs. functional usability
52:30 - Being able to easily change stack height allows you to quickly modify your setup for different events
56:12 - The Seigla's solid carbon right chainstay to fit the wide tires and the cranks used to clear it
1:00:18 - How downtube storage compromises the frame integrity and isn't really necessary anyway
1:05:40 - Why no luggage rack attachment points? How to work around it
1:10:00 - Pink bikes rock! Look great and also adds a nice visibility/safety factor
1:11:42 - What is biking in Iceland like? Perfect proving ground for gravel bikes
1:16:00 - Seiglas are now shipping with 50mm tires STOCK!
1:21:00 - Headtube and handlebar aerodynamics
1:25:00 - Why an aero seat tube isn't as valuable as people think
1:26:40 - Paint colors and what's coming next?