Lauf Elja Ultimate Flight Attendant mountain bike review

As cross-country is getting ever more demanding on bike and rider, modern XC bikes are beginning to look rather different. Case in point of the Lauf Elja. With it, the brand has taken a much simpler approach, and it’s paid off. With excellent trail manners both up and down, Lauf has created a versatile and light, but mega confident machine that marks an exciting future for cross-country. However, it suffers from heel rub, it’s wireless-only, its LSP system isn’t completely trouble-free, and some may disagree with its looks.

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Lauf Elja XC Ultimate Flight Attendant – Technical details

As we’ve started to see with many cross-country bikes these days, Lauf’s Elja takes two forms. First up, there’s the XC thoroughbred that you see here, and the Elja Trail, which uses the same frame but gets a bump up in rear travel and a burlier fork for a more trail-friendly, or dare I say it, down-country ride.

In its XC guise, it benefits from 120mm of suspension at both ends, with both of its models taking full advantage of RockShox’s Flight Attendant technology. This fancy bit of tech automatically adjusts the suspension depending on the riders’ power output, the terrain and how it’s being ridden. 

2025 lauf elja fork.jpg, by Liam Mercer

But despite the whizzy suspension components, the suspension is where things get… Simple. Where many full suspension mountain bikes revolve around complicated linkages, which can up the weight through a bunch of bearings and more components, Lauf has kitted the Elja with just one pivot. Then, in a bid to keep things as low maintenance as possible, that pivot rotates with help from a DUB bottom bracket. Yep, an actual bottom bracket.

The benefit of going this direction means low maintenance, as bottom brackets are generally fairly hard-wearing, but importantly, it’s simple to replace. Thread the old one out, give the insides a bit of a clean, grease a new one up, and thread it in.

2025 lauf elja pivot.jpg, by Liam Mercer

Lauf calls its single pivot suspension layout LSP, and while the brand is renowned for innovating leaf springs for cycling, there isn’t really a leaf spring on the Elja. Rather, the rearward shock mount can be likened to a leaf spring. Though instead of calling it such, the brand has dubbed these mounts ‘flex-arms’ and they’re employed to add lateral compliance to the lower shock mount in a bid to keep the shock itself from binding under heavier lateral loads.

With LSP, the brand has aimed to deliver a more linear leverage curve, as it recognises that volume tokens exist, allowing the user to tailor the progression to their tastes, rather than build in a load of progression that may not be desirable to some riders.

2025 lauf elja lsp.jpg, by Liam Mercer

It’s widely known that single-pivot designs can be a little flexible laterally. Lauf has combatted this by bracing the left and right swingarms together behind the seat tube, has added that oversized pivot bearing, and has oversized any shape where it’s possible, all to boost overall stiffness.

Weighing in at a little over 11kg, weight certainly isn’t an issue for the Elja, nor is its range of frame features. There are three bottle mounts on the front triangle, there’s no internal frame storage, and the frame uses Impact Resistant Modulus carbon. There’s a second threaded bottom bracket where you would expect a bottom bracket to be, too.

As for the geometry, it’s nothing short of modern. The large bike on test gets a 480mm reach, a 66-degree head tube, a 76.2-degree seat tube angle, and a 435mm chainstay. Of course, that’s with a pair of 29in wheels.

Lauf Elja XC Ultimate Flight Attendant – Componentry

Where much of the Elja can be seen as a little kooky, parts of that theme run well into the componentry. That’s found in the tyres as the Elja can run up to 2.8in rubber, as the brand foresees wider tyres being used for XC. However, with the Elja’s spec, Lauf has kitted the bike with 2.6in wide Goodyear Peaks. Not 2.8in wide, but still mighty wide for an XC bike where 2.4in is the current standard.

2025 lauf elja tread.jpg, by Liam Mercer

As touched on before, the bike runs RockShox’s Flight Attendant with a SID Ultimate fork and a SIDLuxe Ultimate shock, providing wireless and automatic on-the-fly compression adjustment.

Wireless is another theme that runs through the bike, as it’s simply not built to accommodate cables. As such, this bike gets SRAM’s XX SL T-Type AXS drivetrain paired with a set of SRAM Level Ultimate brakes, stopping two 180mm rotors. There’s also SRAM’s dual-sided SRAM AXS spider-mounted power metre.

2025 lauf elja mech.jpg, by Liam Mercer

As well as leaf springs, Lauf is cementing itself for its vibration-reducing handlebars, such as the Smoothie. For the Elja, the brand has equipped its own MtnBar. It’s an all-carbon offering with a 35mm clamp diameter and 780mm width.

All of this weighs a little over 11kg, so weight certainly isn’t an issue, and it’ll set you back £8,030.

2025 lauf elja handlebar.jpg, by Liam Mercer

Something to note is that the Elja uses a frame that’s not routed for mechanical drivetrains or cabled remote suspension lockouts. So you’ll be stuck with wireless shifting and RockShox’s Flight Attendant gubbins. Of course, this won’t please everyone.

Lauf Elja XC Ultimate Flight Attendant – Performance

Where the Elja XC is a little out there in terms of its design, and well, it’s different, Lauf has achieved an excellent ride from its lightweight XC bike. Admittedly, its looks will divide, and it’s certainly caught some attention at the trail centre’s carpark, but the more time I’ve spent with it, the more I’ve found myself liking it. It’s different, but for all of the right reasons.

2025 lauf elja downtube.jpg, by Liam Mercer

The bulk of my cross-country experience has come from riding super racey XC machines, and like the folk behind the brand, the Elja is much more relaxed than you would expect of XC’s usual stiff collar. This means a lot of good things. First and foremost, it’s super comfortable. While it can be set up with a much more aggressive, forward-weighted riding position, there’s plenty of space on the steerer to raise the bar a bit for a more upright riding stance. Of course, if you want to slam your stem and go for a negative rise, that’s more than possible.

With that, the Elja’s proven to be a solid climber, which you would expect given that it’s equipped with Flight Attendant. The tech keeps the shock solid under pedalling loads, so that, combined with the bike’s low weight and relatively low-profile tyres, makes for a machine that’s easy to sling up a hill. Throw the bike’s balanced saddled riding position into the mix, and it simply makes climbing easy. It’s a case of spinning the cranks, rather than managing weight distribution over the front and rear wheels, scrambling to eke out traction. But when it comes to traction management, Flight Attendant can save the day, opening up the suspension to help the tyres bite.

2025 lauf elja rub.jpg, by Liam Mercer

Now, where Lauf has overbuilt much of the Elja’s rear end, it is a rather chunky number. With that, I have rubbed my heels against the swingarm a fair bit. Sometimes, this has become somewhat distracting, but more importantly, I have worn through the pre-installed frame protection and through to the carbon. Not particularly ideal.

Equipping a 66-degree head angle has done good things for the Elja. It’s responsive up and downhill, making navigating tech an easy affair, but it’s just slack enough for a confident ride when the speeds start gathering. Then, its lengthy reach provides a roomy cockpit and a welcome hint of stability, which makes maintaining breakneck speeds surprisingly easy going for a bike of this type.

However, outright stability isn’t what this bike, or any XC bike, is about. The Elja’s short chainstay works to bring a good hint of liveliness to the frame, dispatching tight turns with ease, while the good-height bottom bracket works to keep the bike holding its line. It’s a fun bike to throw around.

2025 lauf elja crank.jpg, by Liam Mercer

In fact, I was very impressed with how outright poised the Elja is when pushing it hard through more challenging terrain. Of course, its shape has a lot to do with that, but its rear suspension is surprisingly sorted for a single pivot XC bike. Part of that does come aided by the Flight Attendant, as it constantly learns how you ride and the terrain you ride over, so the system got better at sensing nuances in my pedalling and descending.

But with Flight Attendant overridden to its open position, the bike is sensitive enough to allow the shock to break into its travel without much effort, and it’s liberal enough with that travel to do a rather excellent job of smoothing bumps and maintaining traction. However, it doesn’t completely blow throw all of that travel, so there’s still a good heft of progression towards the end of the stroke, meaning that I’ve rarely, if ever, bottomed out the rear suspension.

Despite being a single-pivot bike, frame stiffness is generally rather good. That’s where the overbuilt swing arm shows its charm. While a little cumbersome on the heels, it rustles up a good level of rigidity that helps keep the Elja feeling cohesive in the turns. I’m sure that the larger diameter of the bottom bracket-equipped pivot pays its dues here, too. That said, in very select scenarios, the springy LSP system can get a little overwhelmed, leading to a hint of shock binding, which then paralyses the bike for a brief second. But I am a heavier guy, and that happened when hitting fast, tight and lumpy corners a little too excitedly. 

2025 lauf elja souting.jpg, by Liam Mercer

Aside from the shock binding on the very rare occasion, overall stiffness is good. But there’s more to the bike than stiffness; in fact, there’s a lot about the Elja that encourages a good level of comfort. You’ve got fat 2.6in rubber, which complements the suspension’s ability to absorb low-level, high-frequency vibrations, and there’s Lauf’s own handlebar, which is an impressive bit of kit in its own right. Combine all of that and you’ve got a vibration-damping machine that adds to the bike’s overall composure and capability. This is certainly something that I appreciated while riding super long days, as its ride is nothing short of forgiving.

Lauf Elja XC Ultimate Flight Attendant – Verdict

Not only leaf springs, but Lauf has become known for being rather competitive when it comes to pricing and at £8,030, the brand has done it again with the Elja in its Ultimate Flight Attendant build. To compare, Canyon’s Lux World Cup CFR AXS is priced at £7,900, and that doesn’t get automatic suspension adjustment. It is loaded with CeramicSpeed bearings, but I reckon that Flight Attendant would save more watts.

To get a similar build from a brand like Specialized, you’ll be looking at the Epic 8 Pro at £8,500. It uses SRAM’s X0 T-Type drivetrain, so it’s not quite as posh, despite being pricier. It does grant you SRAM’s latest Motive brakes, however, and it’s a little prettier, I’d say. To get a comparable build from Specialized, you’ll be spending £12,000 on the S-Works Epic 8.

If you can look past its divisive aesthetics, aren’t fussed about heel rub and are up for a pretty good deal, the Lauf Elja in its Ultimate Flight Attendant build is tough to argue with. It brings a dialled geometry that’ll suit more than just cross-country, with a suspension kinematic that’ll have even trail bikes quaking in their boots. It isn’t without its quirks, but they add to the Elja’s undeniable charm.

• www.laufcycles.com
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