Roligt att se den här diskussionen, eftersom jag är en av grundarna till Lauf Forks.
Just nu så jobbar vi på den nästa versionen av gaffeln. Den kommer, utöver många andra olika förbättringar, bli en 29are.
Jag förstår gott frågorna ni ställer om avsaknaden av låsbarhet och dämpning, vi var skeptiska själva tills vi provade! Jag fortsätter på engelska (svenskan, mitt trädje språk, är lite mer ansträngande för mig)...
With this fork we decided to hit this ~60mm "middle-ground" between rigid forks and XC suspension forks. This is because that for XC/Marathon riding we consider this to be exactly what you should want, and as we increase the travel the fork will gain some weight, and with increased travel it will eventually become useful to add some adjustment options to the fork, and that adds to the weight as well. At the current travel there is no need for any lock-out functionality because the movement under hard pedaling is very limited and of course there is practically no energy loss in the system. This means you'll never have to consider if you should lock out your unit and try to endure some occasional spikes for the sake of not loosing energy on your suspension fork. You can both filter the spikes, and put your energy to the right use.
Having said this. It is obvious though that we'll offer the fork in different stiffness versions to cater to riders of all weights.
As for dampening, the moving part of the suspension sits on a resilient pad during rest position, this pad absorbs excessive rebound after larger hits.
Furthermore, the composite-springs of the system are tilted downwards towards the wheel (by 15° in rest position to be exact). This makes the system slightly more sensitive to frontal loads during the first ~15-20mm of the travel or so. The point with designing it like that is for it to respond better to small square edged bumps, like you often encounter in XC/Marathon riding, so you'll loose less speed when these small bumps try to "push" you backwards.
I'll be glad to try to answer any other questions you might have.
