Mountain biking is what drew Lauf founder and CEO, Benedikt Skúlason and his colleagues into cycling.
Although the brand made its mark developing gravel bikes and road bikes, it has never forgotten its mountain biking roots.
“Ever since we founded Lauf back in 2011, we've been designing our dream mountain bikes in the back of our heads,” Skúlason tells BikeRadar.
The designs have evolved over the past decade until, in 2023, the refined concept became so exciting for the team that they “simply had to go forward with it”.
“When we had the LSP rear-suspension concept dialled, we just had to bring it to the world,” explains Skúlason.
The Elja is the brand’s first mountain bike.
Featuring a progressive suspension design teamed with an industry-challenging attitude to tyre widths, the Elja has been designed to prioritise efficiency, speed and versatility.
Riders can choose between the Lauf Elja XC equipped with 120mm fork travel and a 66-degree head tube angle, or the Lauf Elja Trail, with a head tube slackened by 0.4 degrees and an extra 10mm travel up front.
Wider tyres roll faster
While XC bikes have moved on from the 2.1in tyres of old, Skúlason thinks brands haven’t gone far enough: “It's comical to us that XC is still raced on 2.3-2.4in tyres.”
He points to developments in gravel racing as evidence that wider is often better: “It doesn't take [a rougher course] than what you have in a typical gravel race for a 2.2in tyre to become the fastest option.”
Despite this, many XC racers ride on tyres that are only marginally wider than gravel bike tyres.
Lauf’s goal with the Elja is to kickstart a change to this mindset in XC and trail riding.
“All the data we've gathered is pretty clear. 2.6in tyres roll faster, especially as the terrain gets rougher, and they also make you more confident. So, you can then go ahead and push yourself even harder, again, making you even faster,” says Skúlason.
The challenge lies in the perception of speed.
Skúlason says 2.6in tyres feel slower than narrower ones, as they are more comfortable: “They trick your brain into believing you are going slower, while actually going faster.”
For riders really wanting to push the boundaries, the Elja can take tyres up to 3in wide at the rear. The RockShox Sid fork offers 2.6in clearance up front for the XC model, and the RockShox Pike yields 2.8in for the Elja Trail.
LSP rear suspension concept
The Lauf Elja is impressively light, weighing 11.69 kg and 12.03kg for the top-tier XC and trail builds, respectively.
Lauf has achieved this without compromising on trail capability, focusing on simplicity with its Lauf Single Pivot (LSP) rear-suspension design.
“We don't just believe that mountain bike suspension is needlessly complicated in its execution by many other brands – we know it is. It's just physics,” says Skúlason, assessing the state of mountain bike design in 2025.
According to Lauf, the LSP rear-suspension concept achieves the kind of suspension performance most associate with more complex four-bar linkage systems, but in an extremely efficient, light and clean package.
“By leaving no stone unturned in making our design as efficient as possible, we can save weight,” explains Skúlason.
By removing the complication of more involved linkage designs, Lauf has not only minimised maintenance requirements, but also weight.
This enables the brand to reinvest some of the grams saved to improve the frame’s robustness.
Lauf has also integrated its leaf spring know-how into the flex-arms. These prevent undesirable lateral loads from causing damage to the rear shock.
Bringing mountain bikes into the Lauf fold
The new Elja is now available in either XC or Trail builds, differing with a slacker head tube angle of 65.6 degrees for the aggressive Trail build, and either a 120mm or 130mm fork.
Riders can choose from two premium specs with the Elja XC, priced at $6,990 and $8,290.
Both feature a RockShox SID Ultimate Flight Attendant fork, RockShox SIDLuxe Ultimate Flight Attendant shock, SRAM AXS wireless shifting and carbon Zipp 1Zero HiTop S wheels.
The Elja Trail is available in a wider range of specs, with four models from $4,590 to $8,290.
Looking for an experience that’ll set your new bike day apart from the rest? Pick up your new Elja XC or Trail bike in Iceland and race the Rift five-day MTB stage race with VIP treatment as part of Lauf’s Elja Trail Ultimate Rift Experience package.
