Lauf Cycles | |
Type: | Private Limited Company |
Industry: | Bicycles |
Location: | Reykjavík, Iceland |
Founders: | Benedikt Skulasson, Gudberg Bjornsson |
Products: | Bicycles, bicycle forks, handlebars |
Lauf Cycles is an Icelandic bicycle brand based in Reykjavík. They specialise in gravel bikes.
The Lauf Forks idea was born over a cold bike-ride aprés beer in a cramped basement apartment in Reykjavík around Christmas-time 2010. Avid mountain biker and engineer Benedikt Skulason, at the time working as an R&D engineer for a high-end composite prosthetic feet company, pitched his idea of a super-light revolutionary bicycle suspension fork to his good friend and industrial designer Gudberg Bjornsson.
They are most commonly known for their invention of the Lauf Spring: a pivotless trailing link fork.[1] A set of glass fiber[2] springs are attached between the wheel set and the forks of a bike.[3] Manufacturing is done in Iceland, with subsidiary dealers found in both Europe and the United States.
The company gained media attention when Canadian Cyclo-cross National Champion,[4] Michael Van Den Ham[5] used Lauf bikes for his successful competition wins in 2018.[6]
In 2023, Lauf launched the Úthald (meaning "endurance" in Icelandic), marking their first foray into the road bike market.[7]