The new Lauf Anywhere all-road bike brings the brand’s character and ride quality on a new adventure, using a traditional unsprung fork and (finally, officially) introducing their fantastic Smoothie carbon handlebar. Created to expand their reach to more surfaces and more riders, the new Anywhere is a glossy way to ride any kind of road. Here’s the details…
It starts with “Just A Fork”
We’ll start at the front, because the most obvious “new” thing for something from Lauf is the lack of their trademark composite leaf spring fork. Called JAF (for “Just A Fork”), the carbon fork provides three bolts on each leg to hold a variety of mini-racks, accessory mounts or bottle cages.
The fork will be sold separately, too, with a retail of $540, in a gray/black colorway. Features include 700x45mm or 27.5×2.1″ tire clearance, 400mm axle-to-crown, and 45mm rake. Aftermarket, it’ll be offered with both 15×100 and 12×100 thru axle options (distinct forks for each, no inserts or swappable parts), a 160mm max rotor, and has a rider weight limit of 243lb (110kg). Claimed weight is 435g with 200mm 1.125-to-1.5″ tapered carbon steerer tube.
But will it blend?
Up top is their new Smoothie handlebar, which we were the first to test as a prototype all the way back in fall 2017. What sets it apart is the shape, using an uncharacteristic-for-carbon 90º bend at the ends, making an abrupt turn out to the hoods. Not only does it look good (to us, anyway), it’s incredibly comfortable. The result is a nice, straight bar to grab hold of when standing and sprinting, but also a larger effective platform to rest your palms that (for us, anyway) resulted in less hot spots or pressure points.
It’s called Smoothie because it blends S2 glass fibers into the bar’s center, helping to damp vibrations and bumps before they reach the stem. The shape has a 16º flare to the drops for solid wrist clearance, a mild 3º backsweep for a good hand position on the tops, and 80mm reach and 125mm drop. Claimed weight is ~240g, also available separately for $220. Options are 40/42/44cm widths with corresponding drop widths of 47/49/51cm.
About that bike…
The frame borrows the aesthetic of their True Grit gravel bike, then makes a few changes to give it a more road-worthy demeanor. That said, the geometry uses their “Long For Speed” concept that takes a cue from modern trail bike design by marrying a longer effective top tube with a shorter stem. They say this, plus the rest of the geometry, makes for a bike that’s both stable at speed and able to pick its way around tight stuff when necessary.
The frame uses internal guides to make cable and hose routing easy…just slide them into the headtube’s ports and they’ll magically pop out at the rear brake and derailleurs. Speaking of which, all complete bikes will be sold as 1x builds, but…
You can remove the included bottle opener and add a front derailleur mount if you wanted to make it a 2x road bike. Along the frame are three bottle cage mounts, but that’s about it…it’s meant to be a speedy bike that could take a frame and saddle bag plus a few fork carriers, but not a full on bike packing rig.
If all of this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s sharing the same frame as their True Grit gravel bike, just without the Grit suspension fork. This changes the geometry to more of a road bike (3mm lower stack, 4mm longer reach, 0.5º steeper head and seat angles), but allows you to swap in the Grit fork when it’s time to get rowdy.
The bike ships with a 12×142 rear and 15×100 front thru axle and will come in four complete bike builds ranging from $2,690 up to $5,340 before paint options. Stock colors include Black/Red, Black/Blue and Black/Gray, or you can customize it:
Or go full custom for $2,000 plus additional shipping.
Lauf Anywhere geometry, pricing and specs
Bikes are starting end of March in the “Race” and “Weekend Warrior” builds, with the “Core” models following in April. Click images to enlarge specs and geo charts. Which gives you plenty of time to train on it you’re looking for somewhere to push them (and you) to the limits, head over to Iceland this summer for their inaugural The Rift gravel epic. Or just find an event closer to home where they’ll be demoing bikes, they have a full list under ‘Events’ on their website.
