Lauf eElja – Lauf’s new eElja electric mountain bike—especially the $8,000-plus Race model—leans hard into one idea: make an e-MTB that still feels quick on the trail. With a motor offering 350 watts of assistance hidden in the bottom bracket and a sub-40-pound weight, it
When you pick up a lot of modern e-MTBs. you feel the weight in your forearms before you ever roll the first meter. The Lauf eElja refuses to do that—at least on the scales. At 37.7 pounds. the eElja Race is only a few pounds heavier than many traditional mountain bikes. and it changes how the ride begins even before the first climb.
The bike’s assist is the kind you don’t notice at a glance. Lauf builds a motor capable of providing 350 watts of assistance into the bottom bracket. hidden where it doesn’t dominate the look. On the trail. that translates into something more important than spec sheet excitement: fast. nimble descents and climbs that feel at home rather than forced.
Over the past decade or so, Lauf has been most associated with its front suspension innovation. Instead of the more common piston-style approach. Lauf created a suspension system that’s “almost like two forks connected by a series of small glass fiber springs.” Now the Icelandic brand is moving beyond suspension components and into complete bikes. and the eElja arrives in two versions: the high-end Race build and the slightly more modest Weekend Warrior build.
The eElja Race is the one that recently went through a week of riding. and it’s also the one aimed at riders who want the sharpest possible finish. It comes with carbon wheels, upgraded suspension and groupset, and carbon cranks. The Weekend Warrior build keeps the promise. but dials things back with alloy wheels. a high-midrange groupset and suspension. and alloy cranks.
Lauf equips the eElja Race with a SRAM Eagle groupset that includes wireless SRAM AXS PODS e-shifting and a wireless RockShox Reverb AXS dropper post. The result is a cleaner cockpit and frame presentation than you often see on high-end e-MTBs. because the bike operates with just two cables—one of them internally routed—and those cables are for the brakes.
Out of the box. the Race model brings a RockShox Pike Select+ fork with 140 millimeters of travel and a RockShox Deluxe Select shock in the rear with 130 millimeters of travel. The bike rolls on E*thirteen Optimus Carbon Sidekick tubeless-ready. six-bolt. XD freehub 29-inch wheels wrapped in Goodyear Escape Max Trail Lite 2.6-inch tires.
It’s not just the suspension and drivetrain that stands out—it’s the way Lauf’s weight choice affects everything around the ride. In the e-MTB world, many bikes tip the scales in excess of 50 pounds. The eElja’s sub-40-pound weight is what keeps it maneuverable on the trail. but it also makes the “benign moments” feel manageable: loading it onto a bike rack. moving it into a workstand. and putting it away or taking it out of a quiver. For riders who store bikes on wall hangers, that difference isn’t theoretical.
The eElja Race also comes with a massive 12-speed cassette ranging from 10 t to 52 t. Both the Race and Weekend Warrior models share that cassette range.
There’s a straightforward logic behind the way the bike is built. With the motor assistance rated at 350 watts and hidden in the bottom bracket. Lauf doesn’t dress up performance with obvious hardware sprawl. Instead. it pairs that help with a spec stack that—fork travel. rear shock travel. and tubeless-ready wheels—supports aggressive trail riding while keeping the bike’s overall heft low enough that you don’t feel like you’re wrestling an additional machine at every turn.
I spent a week putting the eElja Race through its paces. and the takeaway wasn’t only that it rides well. It was that the bike feels built for real use, not just showroom admiration. And at a retail price of more than $8. 000. that matters: the experience. from the first lift to the last ride. suggests every penny in that list price is aimed at making the bike both powerful and practical.
Lauf eElja isn’t a single-story machine—it’s an e-MTB approach shaped around one emotional problem riders deal with constantly: the nagging feeling that the extra power comes at the cost of handling. With the Race model weighing in at 37.7 pounds and delivering 350 watts of hidden assistance. the eElja answers that worry by refusing to feel heavy when it counts.
Lauf eElja e-MTB electric mountain bike 350 watts motor bottom bracket motor SRAM Eagle AXS RockShox Reverb AXS RockShox Pike Select+ RockShox Deluxe Select 37.7 pounds E*thirteen Optimus Carbon Sidekick Goodyear Escape Max Trail Lite XD freehub