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Borealis, Lauf Forks spring into a partnership for sprung fat bikes

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Borealis and Lauf Forks have just partnered up to spec the Icelandic brand’s carbon leaf spring suspension forks on several upcoming complete bike builds.

Starting this August, you’ll be able to choose from Summer and Winter oriented complete bikes using the suspension fork, or just order it as part of a frameset.

“The Lauf Carbonara fork is a perfect complement to our product offering,” said Steve Kaczmarek, Borealis Founder and CEO. “This gives us the opportunity to provide our riders with the ultimate winter or adventure experience and eliminates any concerns about performance or maintenance.”

“The agile ride of the Lauf Carbonara makes fatbikes incredibly fast and fun to ride, in an unrivalled range of applications. Snow, sand, freezing cold, it doesn’t matter.” adds Benedikt Skulason, CEO of Lauf Forks.

Bounce on down for a riding shot that’ll make you wanna hop aboard…

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Ricksar
Ricksar
8 years ago

Bad move Borealis

me
me
8 years ago

weight…weight?! ….weeeeight?!??!!?

me
me
8 years ago

Better give me the weight before I go to bed.

chsad
chsad
8 years ago

Lighter then a bluto, double the price.

heatwave23
heatwave23
8 years ago

@me….. Its a Fat bike…. Its effen heavy.

Skeeter
Skeeter
8 years ago

Losta hate from the peanut gallery.
I’m looking forward to getting my Carbonara on, and welcome the tech advances.

Fjork
Fjork
8 years ago

Testing a Lauf on a HT 29er was the single most sketchy experience I’ve ever had on a bike. It’s a glorified lightweight K-Mart spring fork that eats the initial force of a bump, but then pushes the bike back up at you.

Any time the terrain became consistently bumpy or brake rutted, the bike started with small bobbles and then got worse until the bike was bucking up and down. A rigid fork would be a better option if you are looking to scrub weight. Especially with the added supple feel that fat tires offer.

This is one of those products that deserves to be chuckled at 10 years from now in some small bike museum in some random small town.

Doug B
Doug B
8 years ago

Dont’ care what it looks like as long as it works right.
Lighter, less maintenance, all help, love to try.

Ripnshread
Ripnshread
8 years ago

Tech advances? Your kidding right? Its a leaf spring.

Stephen
Stephen
8 years ago

Before commenting on this combo, you should all refrain from commenting. Fat doesn’t equal heavy. I can’t imagine that Borealis would compromise an amazing bike without thorough research.

Borealis
8 years ago

The Lauf fork weighs just under 1,400 grams while the Bluto weighs 1,750 for a considerable weight savings. After riding the fork for the last few months as well as last week in Iceland, the performance is truly amazing. This is a fork designed for a long winter race or adventure riding where the pounding of a rigid fork is less than ideal and the potential for maintenance (Lower than -10F) issues with suspension forks is not an option! This fits a specific need and is not for the hard core downhill rider. If you get the opportunity, take one out and give it a try. We think you will be convinced.

Chsad
Chsad
8 years ago

Borealis, is 500 better then a bluto?

Rickstar
Rickstar
8 years ago

It’s amazing how people just want a new product in this industry based on weight. SUCKERS!
Most likely you’re not a professional racer, so the extra 200 grams won’t make you any faster, only if you drink the koolaid.

colin t
colin t
8 years ago

I have ridden this fork both on a fattie and 29r. Its amazing. If any of you would like to edit their comments to reflect if you have first hand experience or input please do. If not, don’t bother. its such a waste. The price is fair considering the size of the company and a new product. Not many forks work well in the cold, but these are unhindered. they have just enough to compliment a little extra dampening than the tires,and allows the tires to have more psi for speed. Its a great option that is perfect for many places and situations. Its better than the Bluto in my opinion due to the cold in MN.

best way to have a faster bike. ride more.

Sprat
Sprat
8 years ago

I’ve been using a lauf fork for a couple months now. Simply put if you marry the tire pressure to your conditions and know how this fork works there’s very little to worry about. If your pressure is too high or you are riding some seriously technical shit, and aggressively, then maybe you won’t feel as confident as you’d like. Lauf has never claimed this fork to be THAT type of fork anyways.

Lars
Lars
8 years ago

What is the front spacing? I’d be interested if it were 135, so I could use with a dyno hub but if it’s 150mm forget about it.

PartyTime
PartyTime
8 years ago

@Borealis you are right this bike with a Lauf is perfect for one thing. Straight line snow racing. The normal lauf is a flexy nightmare in the turns, can you imagine railing a turn (even a snow berm, see this years fat bike nationals) with those massive fat tire meat? Yes your bikes are silly light but the Lauf can’t handle that rotating mass, it cant even handle a 29er wheel unless you weigh 80 lbs. The bluto is heavy and flexy too, I am stoked to see the new Fat Bike Lefty from Cannondale. They teased a photo on their instagram and if its as good as their normal Lefty, its going to be light and crazy stiff. You should look into spec-ing those on your bike. I know Open was selling Lefty on their XC rig.

Benedikt Skulason
8 years ago

First I need to correct a typo from Borealis. The Lauf Carbonara is only 1100g and not 1400g, so you’ll feel a massive weight difference compared to a Bluto.
Secondly, even though it looks somewhat similar to the current TR29 XC fork, it’s wayyyyyy different. The whole chassis has been thorougly redesigned, not just made wider to get some tire clearance. We have never, and I’m pretty sure that we will never, hear any rider mentioning that it could do with more lateral stability. Rest assured!
The rider feedback we’ve had has been nothing short of exceptional. It’s a product that we know we hit home-run with.

UnZipp
UnZipp
8 years ago

@Stephen, I hope you were kidding with your above statement. Research? Maybe they should have researched the Yampa, which has had more catastrophic frame failures than any other bike brand I’ve dealt with in the last 18 years. But hey, they are light, right?

haromania
haromania
8 years ago

I have to hand it to ’em, I didn’t think it was possible to make an uglier fork than the old Pro-Flex fork.

I would be curious to give this a try, but in all honesty it couldn’t possibly work good enough for me to buy and or install one. I just want to be able to say I rode one someday when we’re hanging out somewhere chuckling about stuff like Onza pedals, and this fork.

Tundra
Tundra
8 years ago

Party time can you link or grab a shot of the cannondale fat lefty teaser. I don’t see it anywhere. I think if people have not tried one of these not really a reason to bash it. Explain thoughts sure but how can you trash something you haven’t used. I don’t think borealis even without Adam Miller would jump into something if it was crap or gimmick.

Jesse
Jesse
8 years ago

The Bluto is simply unreliable in extreme cold and in my opinion shouldn’t be on a winter Fat Bike at all. I’ve heard a lot of good rapport over this Carbonara fork. That it is an entirely different beast from the Trail Racer fork.

I wish that Salsa had picked up on this when they seemed curious awhile ago.

Jim
Jim
8 years ago

If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. A fat bike with a Lauf fork is another option for riders to consider.

SCOTT BEAULIEU
SCOTT BEAULIEU
8 years ago

The Yampa is not having failures. I’ve given mine much more than most anyone on here. Trust me on this! I have hit some big drops and jumps and yet to see a failure. Sorry, not buying the BS.

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