Lauf Grit Fork Wobble

Some users on Facebook are reporting a wobble with their Grit suspension forks. Anyone here confirm / deny this?

The Seigla with a Grit fork is one of three gravel bikes I’m considering. Unfortunately the other two also have issues - cranks falling off of some Canyon Grizls, no UDH, no PM; and seat tube cracks on Giant Revolts, stack that is too high for my preference, undersized rear rotor, no UDH, no PM.

I love my Lauf Grit fork. I have it installed on a Lynskey GR Race. It really helps. I am big at 6’3” and 190lbs. I get no appreciable wobble or bouncing, even when sprinting out of the saddle,

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Revel Rover has a UDH :slight_smile:

I have a lauf true grit. I’ve never had the speed wobbles described on those posts. I’ve had once or twice on pavement riding while standing where you feel that bit of “give” in the fork. Less of a wobble though and not as described in that fb post.

I know a handful of friends who own Seigla’s and never heard them describe that wobble.

If concerned you could buy the Seigla with just the regular fork. It’s an amazing bike even without the fork.

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Can someone transcribe the “wobble” from facebook?

I’ve hit brutal washboards at 30+mph. Almost 50mph on a road descent a few weeks ago. Never had any issues with mine.

Just curious…why is no UDH an issue? That seems to be more of a MTB thing, right? Are you planning to do a mullet with the new Eagle transmission?

@slipdog here are a couple of the reports, all from different people.

I came off a sidewalk onto the road at a curb cutout that had a little bit of a bump. My brakes were on. The front end started shaking side to side. I thought I had a flat front tire. I kept brakes on to come to a stop but was sure I was going down.

Had this exact same thing last week on a paved downhill (smooth). I got it pulled off the road to a stop (luckily), and pulled the front wheel out and reinstalled, checked all bolts, even my fork headset plug, and could find nothing loose. If anything, all my bolts and thru axles are overtight. It hasn’t happened since. It was way different than a normal speed wobble that i’ve had with a regular carbon fork. The side to side wobble was way amplified over a typical speed wobble shimmer. Been cautious since then on downhills. I do not like not knowing what went on there to be honest. I wasn’t going super fast, 25.6 mph at the time (per Strava). The only thing I could think of was something with the fork springs was the cause somehow.

To add to my issue. I tore down the front end of my Seigla last night to check everything. I did find the slightest amount of play in my front wheel axle, and thus re-tightened up the axle cap to remove play. It may have been the cause of my issue, or not. Who knows. But in fairness to all, wanted to post I did find something that can attribute to this issue that would not be the fork. I will run it through the ringer and post back in a few weeks for any further updates.

Happens pretty frequently when taking my hands off the bar. Definitely something to be aware of when grabbing items out of your pockets above 20mph. Cane creek just came out with a dampening headset but I’m not sure if it’s compatible or not

Until a few hours ago, I thought y’all were crazy. Well I can’t believe I didn’t go down. My best friend was behind me and said it was scary the way the bike shook. My lbs mechanic was with us and he couldn’t find any issue whatsoever with the bike. It was scary to say the least. Hopefully, it’s just a one off thing. For the record it was a long downhill on pavement so I was in the mid or upper 30s. Maybe it’s just a high speed on pavement thing.

I noticed a random wobble at various times during rough downhills. Never was really able to predict it and came to the conclusion it was a resonance phenomenon that would come and go.

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Are you taking about the Rotor crank on a Reddit thread? I had that issue too with the Rotor Adhlu crank on a different bike. You’ve gotta crank that arm down with a big boy torque wrench to 40nm. I use the same one I use for my car lug nuts. Most 10mm hex keys aren’t long enough to put 40nm of torque on that bolt.
Once you tighten it down right, it’s good. Any single crank arm bolt design has the same issue.
For a PM, I use a Power2Max with the Rotor- 5stars for that setup.

It doesn’t sound like you want to turn a wrench, but if you’re looking for a SRAM UDH to run SRAMs Transmission setup, you’re probably going to end up putting a SRAM Rival/Force or Quarq PM Any bike shop will install that for you no problem. Rather than looking for a bike with a PM, just find one with a SRAM group set rather than looking for an impossible bike combination.

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I have sold my True Grit a few years ago, but the only thing I didn’t like about the fork was that when climbing out of the saddle, I could feel it wiggle side to side. It wasn’t enough to scare me or anything like the posts above, but I COULD feel it.

My Lauf was the original, so I can’t speak for the newer mail order bikes, but I loved that frame. It was the right amount of stiff but forgiving for me, and it was a REALLY light bike for the cost. Even with the True Grit fork.

Lauf would welcome you back @Pbase :smiley:

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@jfranci3 thanks for the comments. I wasn’t clear in my post but the Seigla offers the best value out of the box for the items I’m most interested in (50+ mm tire clearance, SRAM AXS 1x, suspension front end, power meter), but the possible fork-related wobble is concerning.

The Grizl is a close second, but some Canyons have cranks fall off, PM would be an extra cost, suspension in the form of a different fork or stem would be an additional cost, and I’d replace the handlebars because the shape of the drops causes me hand and arm discomfort (so more money). Additionally, Canyon is only offering the SRAM 1x in the US in a color that I really don’t like, and they have no plans to expand the paint offerings anytime soon (at least according to customer service).

I’m willing to trade a slightly higher bottom bracket on the Seigla for the Grit Fork, but probably not for the Rigid version without it (ref a previous comment). Having a UDH-compliant frame is a bonus if I ever wanted to upgrade down the line, but is not an immediate consideration (unless I win the lottery).

Thank you for this. While not ideal, I’m much less concerned about side-to-side movement when climbing (especially out of the saddle) than I am during high speed descents.

Still no update from Lauf on the FB channel but one of their reps has reached out to those that have reported issues.

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I’ve experienced this a couple times, on fast descents with a cross wind. One was a horrifying death wobble at 35mph that I was able to stop and recover from, the other was on a gravel descent that was more subtle.

Good to know … thank you

Yeah… out of the box value there - I wouldn’t pass up the right frame architecture for features though (suspension by design, downtube storage) - the PM is a $250 issue, missing out on a frame detail is much worse. For your specs, you want a bike with suspension native in the design as you don’t want the frame tilted up 30-50mm throwing off your seat tube and head angle. You also want a manageable standover height with the big tires. *

  • Take a look at the standover height and what tires they calc that with. For a medium Lauf, they use 45c tires to measure 789mm (31in), which might be right at your inseam as-is or even higher (with shoes and shorts on. Standing on uneven, soft ground (maybe even with stuff on your bike), you want to be able to get both feet down with some clearance. The Revolt has best in class crotch clearance. The Grizl is 807mm on 45c
  • Do you have a 700x50c tire in mind? The reason I ask is that there are a lot of good 45-47c tires, and zero after that till you hit MTB 2.2 54c tires. Same with 650c. Just thinking you might be crossing something off your list that might not make any sense. 700x50c tires are TALL btw… I’m an XL bike kinda guy and would go 650c for anything bigger than 43c.

Have you tried this fork? Besides lateral and torsional wobble developing over time, my other concern would be the lack of dampening. On corner entry on my XC bike, it was pretty unnerving when I started with it as the front end would dive quite a bit on corner entry, altering the input I fed it as the front wheel came inward. I fixed the tuning the damper, but I wouldn’t want my road-ish bike doing that. The Lauf is shorter travel and higher spring rate, but I’d want to test it.

Personally, I’d pass on the Revolt because of the dropper. Droppers ride too stiff (even with the suspension feature because of the angles involved). The Diverge, to my eye, looks great for you aside from the $6200 price (over a $3500 Canyon - and I don’t see Canyon using a Rotor crank any more)

I think the largest tires I’ll realistically run are 45 mm. I was looking at bikes with 50+ mm clearance to ensure sufficient room around the tires for mud, etc. I guess the details are in the fine print. The Grizl, for example, says max tire clearance is 50 mm but explicitly states that is with 6 mm all around the tire. My road bike claims to fit 32 mm tires, but with 31 mm Vittoria Dry Torreno there is maybe 2-3 mm around the tire - much too narrow should I ever encounter mud on the occasional Gucci, well-maintained dirt road.

The Specialized Diverge is a great looking bike but the cost and frame geometry don’t work for me - far too much stack.

I’d like suspension but it does not need to be native to the design. A RedShift ShockStop suspension stem or Cane Creek eeSilk would work, as would the Ergon or eeSilk seat post. These just add to the total cost of the bike, though.

I’ve got the Ergon / canyon leafspring post. 5-stars on the 27.2 model aside from slipping. Liked it so much I took it off my XC bike, and put it on my road bike. The XC bike got the new 30.9 model. This is a lot stiffer, but no slip 4-stars.

Any (mass produced) suspension bike is going to have 30mm too much stack or some slacker than advertised angles. The frame needs to clear 50mm of tire + 30+mm of travel and crown- that’s 80mm of head tube they need to shave out of the full size tangle. Also, the steerer on the fork needs the bearings spaced out a bit for stability. A lot of the gravel bikes are too tall though even without suspension- you’re right.

Good to hear about the Ergon seat post.

I also appreciate the comments on stand over height. My inseam is 850 mm (33.5 in) and my road bike stand over height is 775 mm. The Grizl with 45 mm tires should have a stand over height of 815 mm (medium frame) or 790 mm (small frame).

Even though I’m 5’ 11” tall and Canyon’s site recommends a medium frame based on my in seam length, the small Grizl is within +/- 10 mm of my current bike’s stack, reach, and BB drop. I’m thinking this is the better frame size, and then add a RedShift Stem, Ergon seatpost, different handlebars, and forgo a power meter. I’d really like to get a SRAM XPLR drivetrain but I can realistically only afford those other changes by going with GRX 1x. I would at least get the frame paint I like. It comes with a dropper, though, and I think that means the seatpost diameter is 30.6, vice 27.2, but the frames look identical to me. :man_shrugging:

Quickly chiming in to state that I’ve never experienced an unusual wobble on my Lauf True Grit I bought in 2021. I also don’t notice any bobbing or wobbling when climbing out of the saddle which I see is a common question people ask about the Lauf Fork. My only complaint is that it feels like the fork becomes more of a sail in a crosswind, but to compare I’d have to ride a trad. fork bike in the same crosswind and then hop on my Lauf to repeat (and I’ve never done that) so that may not even be real. Overall, I’m happy with my TG and would purchase again.

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Are there Revolt bikes with a mandatory dropper? I know they added them as an option, but wasn’t aware of any where you couldn’t get the standard Giant seatpost. I love my 2021 Revolt, btw.

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