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Upgrade has announced that it will distribute Icelandic brand Lauf as of July 2017.
The concept for Lauf forks was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, around Christmas-time 2010. Avid mountain biker and engineer Benedikt Skulason, who at the time was 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 friend and industrial designer Gudberg Bjornsson.
Skulason was surrounded by high-tech composite materials and technology at work and while taking part in bike races in his free time, which cultivated the perfect environment for the Lauf concept to be tested.
The Lauf fork is a twist on the well-known leaf spring suspension concept, combined with modern high-performance composite materials.
The Lauf fork range consists of three models for XC racers, Fatbike riders and Gravel/CX riders with the Trail Racer, Carbonara and Grit models respectively. All of the forks are built around Skulason’s thought process of zero maintenance via the lever spring technology.
MD at Upgrade Bikes Damian Mason commented: “Having just launched the Kinesis Tripster AT to complement our already successful Tripster ATR we have been exploring the possibilities of how far we can push these styles of bikes and feel that the Lauf fork is the perfect match to our frames for progressive gravel riding. Personally I have always been interested in this style of fork having explored this technology as a University Degree project many years ago. It’s great to see a proven finished project successfully bought to market.”
