Lauf launches first road bike, the Lauf Úthald

In January 2023, Icelandic bike brand Lauf opened an assembly line in Harrisonburg, Va. It was here, 10 months later in the dusk light of what was once the printing warehouse for the Daily News-Record, that the company unveiled its bike, the Úthald.

Lauf not only has a history with gravel bikes, but also building engineering solutions that make these bikes both comfortable and fast. The Úthald, however, is not primarily meant for the dirt. It is what the company dubs a “fast road bike.” Surprised? Well, you shouldn’t be.

In 2016, when Lauf was designing and developing the True Grit bike, most brands were opting for stiffer gravel frames with steeper head-tube angles. Lauf leaned toward compliance and stability in order to obtain speed. When you consider mountain bikes, this approach isn’t so radical. Still, it seemed no one had applied it to the road. As such, Lauf began to question the reasoning behind road bike geometry in general. After asking a variety of engineers why every brand seemingly followed the same formula, the only answers that came back were “it was tradition” and “it made the bikes ‘feel fast’.”

Feeling fast versus being fast

According to Lauf, most bike brands and their engineers focus on producing bikes that feel fast. But this perceived speed, noise, impact and stiffness are often an indication of the opposite. In reality, the difference between one bike to the other is never going to be sufficiently dramatic for a rider to feel it.

Benedikt Skúlason, the founder of Lauf and an engineer himself, recognizes that when huge teams of noteworthy engineers have worked on specifically optimizing carbon-fibre bicycles, it’s unlikely that any particular brand will swoop in with one idea that puts their years of research aside. Taking the same approach lacks creativity and is unlikely to result in huge gains, but altering this offers a window for progress and “where there is tradition and conservatism, there tend to be opportunities.”

 

Most brands tend to distinguish between two rider types: the fast ones and the less-experienced ones. The companies mostly offer speeded frames to one type and compliance to the other. However, Lauf’s True Grit reinforced the idea that greater confidence on the bike will directly translate into higher speeds. It’s not a matter of speed or compliance, but speed and compliance. “When you are stable and confident, you can ride faster. Period,” Skúlason says. With the Úthald, it’s a confidence-inspiring road bike with a fast fit.

The Úthald, which literally translates from Icelandic into “endurance” can be further broken down into parts: ut (out) and halt (to go), forming an extension to Lauf’s straight-forward “just ride” way of thinking. Skúlason points out that, like the bike’s name, “it is fundamentally about two things: stability and compliance” or more so, combining the two to achieve greater speed.

Stability

“We can make it sound terribly complicated but it’s pretty simple—the idea for the bike grew from the head-tube angle.” Skúlason says. “Why wouldn’t you make race bikes more stable than they are?”
As bikes increase in size, many brands tend to maintain the wheelbase, which results in steeper head-tube angles for larger sizes. For XS and S this makes sense as you need to kick the head angle out for the toe clearance but for L and XL, there isn’t a good reason for doing this. If anything, there is good reason not to.

Shorter riders tend to have a lower centre of gravity, which allows them to move side to side with ease. The taller the rider, the higher the centre of gravity, and the greater the need for stability. The Úthald maintains a fixed head-tube angle across all sizes, and as such, the larger sizes are more stable than those of other brands because the head tube is at a comparatively slacker head angle with a corresponding wheelbase.

Geometry analysis

To better explain what the slacker angle offers in terms of trail, think of a pendulum: as the head angle reduces, the trail length increases, which in turn increases the distance between the pivot point (a straight line extending from the steering axes and landing just in front of the wheel) and point of contact (wheel to road). Increasing the distance between the two, slows the swing and increases the pull toward the centre point. Essentially these bikes are harder to “off-centre.” Now, let’s add speed into the equation. At higher speeds, there is a greater force applied, which will further increase the central pull (or stability) of the front wheel in comparison to lower speeds. So it leads you to question why this setup has traditionally been intended for slower or less experienced riders when the greatest benefit is at higher speeds?

Compliance

In 2021 and 2022, when Lauf was designing and developing the Seigla, the company stumbled across its next ah-ha moment. While it’s generally accepted that the tires, often further complemented with a good quality handlebar tape, are what really takes up the bandwidth for the fast reactive materials on coarse road surfaces, the rear compliance on the Seigla provided additional comfort without the need for complex or weighty pivots. So once again the question arose: why not integrate this design into a road bike where the benefits would translate well, or perhaps even more so, given the road bike’s comparatively narrow tires? A smoother ride is essentially a faster ride as there is less resistance all round, from both the rider and the bike. Add that to a fast fit and theoretically you have an even faster “fast bike!”

Comparisons to other bikes

Intrigued, Lauf compared the Úthald’s rear compliance to well known-race bikes of four major bike brands currently on the market. The test: a 75-kg weight was applied to the saddle of each of the bikes.The corresponding sag was measured in a downward direction toward the rear hub. The range of compliance offered by the other bikes sat between 1 to 2.5 mm regardless of the compliance they boasted in their marketing materials. In comparison, the Úthald provided 4.5 mm flex, 80 per cent more than the most compliant bike in the company’s lineup and a whopping 350 per cent more than the least compliant. This 4.5 mm translates into roughly 15 mm of travel, similar to that you would expect to see on a pivot-based system. So when you consider an average tire would offer the same amount of give before failing with a snakebite, it equates to the compliance of an entire tire on top of that which you are running.

Seat tube flex

The Integrated Compliance Engineering System (fondly referred to as ICE’d in keeping with Lauf’s nature-inspired nomenclature) is designed in such a way that the entire seat tube flexes with symmetrical distribution to form an arc around the seat tube/seat stays junction as the vertical forces are applied. The seatstays are positioned to allow the system to function as opposed to offering compliance themselves, but dropping them is a less effective way of carrying load, so there resulted in a small weight penalty due to the extra material needed. That said, the compliance could be optimized by dropping the seatstays farther still, but doing this would contravene UCI rules. The Úthald has been built to UCI specs.

To further facilitate the system, Lauf shied away from using a compensation triangle, as this feature would fix the top tube-seat tube junction so any flex at the rear of the bike would increase the pressure at the central portion (and the weakest point) on the top tube. In comparison, the Úthald is designed to flex in order to take up much of the noise created with the vertical forces that are applied.

Keeping it fun

To offset the stability and comfort, Lauf has kept the stays as short as possible to better translate power and inject a more fun lively reactive feel into the back of the bike. The shorter length also helps keep the stays under the rider, which increases the aerodynamics. To the same end, specifically fun and speed, the Úthald is designed for 35-mm-wide tires, but will be spec’d with 32-mm tubeless-ready treads. That said, there is nothing stopping you swapping the 32s out for 28s, if you so fancy. The bike will easily accommodate 38s on the larger end, too.

Aerodynamics

Lauf set out to design a road bike that was fast, fun to ride, and easy to live with, so many of the design features have been driven by frustrations that have arisen from using and maintaining other bikes. Think internal brake hose routing. Lauf doesn’t think it’s worth it.

For every design feature, Skúlason and his team considered the industry trends versus the associated benefits and costs. When it comes to the brakes, Lauf concluded it wasn’t worth compromising on easy and affordable maintenance or complicating quick adjustments for the extremely marginal gains you might achieve with full internal routing.

Using the data

There are stats out there that suggest various brands can offer huge gains in power/speed as a result of tinkering with the aerodynamics, but all too often these can only be achieved in “extreme cases.” At times, the specific conditions equate to high speeds, above average power output, together with a headwind, and multiple cables in disarray on the bike, or other rarely encountered circumstances. Add to that, the rider, who accounts for most of the airflow disruption and is conveniently eliminated when testing some of these bikes, and the aerodynamic claims are largely irrelevant. The exposed cables aren’t going to make a huge difference.

Since the Úthald is only compatible with electronic drivetrains, the number of cables required is halved. In keeping with the company’s aim to elevate user experience, Lauf guides the brake hoses through tunnels that extend the length of the frame and forks to reduce the rattling and facilitate maintenance. The electronic drivetrain reduces the need for additional cables and the weight penalty for the additional tunnels, in turn.

The semi-external routing also benefits the aerodynamics of the head tube as internal cable routing requires a larger bearing at the top and bottom of the head tube. The resulting hourglass shape tends to make the head tube appear smaller as it is relative to the bearings, but the Úthald’s external cable routing gives way to a narrower, more aerodynamic, head tube.

Aero without additional weight

As a rule, the deeper you go on tube widths, the more aero the bike becomes, but the heavier it gets. In essence, greater aerodynamics tend to come at a cost. Much like the Seigle, the Úthald’s headset is wide at the front and gradually tapers towards the back which encourages laminar flow until the passing wind hits the “well-jam-it” point and spills out in a more disorganized fashion. This point is where the aerodynamic benefits gained from the airfoil are so marginal that they are outweighed by the corresponding weight penalty and so the tapering stops.

The step in the down tube is another nod to aerodynamics. It’s designed to allow for a more constant radius around the tire and decrease the space between the wheel and frame. Concentric to the hub, the step provides ample tire clearance and optimizes smooth airflow from the tire to the frame.

Similarly, that flare of the down tube helps shield the cages and bottle and comes without any weight penalty. Initially, Skúlason wanted to surround the wheel to further maximize the airflow but the cost and complexity outweighed the benefits.

Focusing more aerodynamics at the front end of the bike and lightweight shapes towards the rear, Lauf acknowledges that while it might be faster with aero shapes at the back, that’s where weight, compliance and component compatibility is prioritized. You can exchange the seatpost for another on the fly (should you need to) without an issue, making the bike more practical than one with a proprietary post. Less of a decision making factor but still a consideration, ease and practicality speak to Lauf’s fundamental aims for this bike.

I should note that the Úthald has not been tested in a wind tunnel. While Skúlason expresses that he would like to test the Úthald in such an environment, he still considers it largely unnecessary as he and his team have read up on and applied the principles of aerodynamics to individual parts of the bike. It does, however, lead me to question how these individually aero components work together to provide a more holistically aero machine.

Still, Skúlason says that the individual components make contact with the air separately. Of course, from the front this is true, but what are the effects as the air spins off the front and mixes toward the midsection of the bike? How do the individually tailored components affect the direction of airflow as a whole? How important the wind tunnel results are for a Sunday club ride however, is almost certainly negligible.

Carbon Modulus

Of course, the usual question with a road bike, second to how aero it is, is how light it is. Then, but not so frequently, comes the question of impact resistance. These dream characteristics usually arrive at a cost in relation to each other, but if the correct balance is achieved between all three, it is largely a zero sum game.

Very lightweight frames use smaller fibres that allow the bikes to reach the right stiffness at a lower weight but are much more fragile as a result, offering roughly eight times less impact resistance than a standard modulus carbon fibre, for example. Lauf opted for a standard modulus carbon. The company says it was a no-brainer as the factory they use offers four moduli, one standard modulus, one high, and two intermediate. For most purposes, the high modulus simply isn’t useful.

Chili versus Cheerios

The high modulus is much lighter and twice as stiff as the standard modulus, so just half the material is required to achieve the same level of stiffness. In terms of load limit, it is much weaker. Typically speaking, the weight dispersion on a tube is linear, and the strength is relative to the thickness, so by reducing the thickness by half, the squeeze strength will be one eighth and the strength just one quarter of the original modulus. This isn’t a small difference, as Skúlason wonderfully coins, it’s the difference between “chili versus Cheerios.”

This line of thought extends to the forks, as it does with most brands as they almost all steer clear of high-modulus forks given the likelihood they will fail. As such, at just 365 g the Úthald’s (fully painted) fork is as light as most other “fast race bikes,” perhaps even a gram or two lighter.

Cockpit

What’s interesting is Lauf’s material choice for the handlebars. Until now, Lauf has been super strict on not mixing modulus grades within the same component. The reason: each modulus has the same strength but given the varying flexibility, they demonstrate different breaking points. With this, the stiffer one will break first, leaving the more flexible one to double the load until this eventually fails also.

Lauf has designed its Smoothie handlebars with a carbon-fibre and glass-fibre blend to offer a similar level of compliance at the front of the bike to what’s at the back. Still not mixing in the full sense of the word, the impact resistant glass fibre runs laterally across the width of the bars and a small carbon fibre ring sits underneath with the fibres perpendicular to one another to strengthen the junction. More a cosmetic consideration than technical, the arrangement helps prevent any damage from over-torquing the stem.

Moving to the drops, carbon fibre is telescopically connected to the glass fibre to optimize strength and compliance. There’s a little extra weight due to the overlap of materials, but the benefits outweigh the costs. At just 270 g (for a 40 cm bar), the costs are relative when you consider the additional 25 to 67 per cent of compliance in comparison to the other well-known bike brands that Lauf has tested.

Availability

The Úthald is available for pre-order in two specifications, the Weekend Warrior Wireless and the Race Wireless, which weigh in at 8.78 kg and 7.95 kg respectively (in size M). They will start shipping in January. The bike will come in a range of sizes from XS to XL with corresponding crank lengths and handlebar widths. They will arrive 90 per cent assembled, so that you can get on with riding them following a few easy adjustments at home. A third, Ultimate, specification will be available next summer.

Cost

The cost in the standard colour, obsidian black, is US$3,490 for the Weekend Warrior Wireless and US$4,690 for the Race Wireless. There are three other colours to choose from: rubus red, borealis, and thingvellir sky, which will add between US$190 to US$390 to the final price.

As tempting as it might be to offer checkboxes for custom options, especially with the assembly warehouse in the U.S., Lauf has focused instead on providing two to three specs that it considers to be best. The company may add checkbox options in the future, such as brake orientation for the U.K. compared with the U.S. and Europe.

Individual requirements

Until then, Lauf is offering to reimburse customers when certain adjustments, and additional components, can be sold separately to better suit individual requirements. Lauf also offers a 30 day policy for you to try the bike and exchange it if need be.

Lauf has actually already outgrown the warehouse in Harrisonburg and is looking to further expand the same space to broaden the assembly line on one side of the building and open a showroom on the other. Conveniently located opposite a brewery, you could argue that there is no better setup than what’s already there: bikes and beer. Seriously, what’s not to like? I encourage you to check it out at Laufcycles.com