There is no question my Surly Ice Cream Truck in Prickly Pear is eye-catching. But it’s one specific detail that really gets friends and customers talking – the matching Lauf Carbonara fork.

The fork body and steerer tube are made of carbon fiber while the suspension duty falls to aerospace S2 glass fiber leaf springs (“Lauf” is leaf in Icelandic). These extremely tough springs are flexible only in the direction of travel and the unique profile is designed to reduce friction and maintenance by removing the moving parts of a telescoping fork. The fork is extremely sensitive over stutter bumps regardless of the outside temperature, and the progressive spring rate allows big hits without bottoming out the 60mm of travel which is well suited for fat bike use.

Originally painted factory white, I brought the fork to Hot Tubes to have it custom painted for the new Surly frame. The crew perfectly matched the prickly pear pink, and Lauf promptly responded to my request to send Hot Tubes the graphics.

I hand-built the wheels using HED Big Aluminum Deal rims and DT Swiss 350 “BigRide” hubs, topped with 45NRTH Flowbeist and Dunderbeist 4.6 tubeless tires. The workload of the bikes falls to a Shimano SLX 1×12 drivetrain, RaceFace Turbine crank with Hyperglide+ Cinch chainring, and SRAM Level TLM brakes. The finishing touches were a Salsa quick-release seat clamp, heat shrink wrapped cables, frame mounting bolts replaced with black button head aluminum, and matching pink iSSi Trail III pedals.