When a new bike graces our screens, it's usually something to get worked up about but when an uber new bike brand pops up then the excitement goes off the scale. Especially when the bike in question looks like the RAAW Madonna!

• What does it take to get on a Foxhunt podium? We find out....
• Review - Saracen Mantra Trail

This RAAW Madonna truly does look like something special It's from a company who say that they started the development of the Madonna with a long list of new solutions. Some of the solutions, they say, for some it will convince you on the first ride and for others it will make you smile after a full season of riding.

The company seems to be striving to make the bike industry a better place, in their words "The bike industry is growing industry with big money behind the wheel, we just want to keep things real. We create better bikes and show what’s possible without the corporate decision." 

Head of the brand, Reuben Torenbeek, has previously worked with Scott to bring to production their integrated bar and stem seen on the 2018 Scott Genius, he's one that thinks outside the box for sure. Sounds good so far right? Well, if you are into hard-hitting enduro bikes then this is only going to get better!

 

 

Features

The Madonna is a 160mm, 29er enduro bike with some cool features that are surely going to make British riders hearts sing: 

•  Four bar linkage suspension design
• Alloy frame
• Designed around a 1x drivetrain
• Bearings on all shock pivots making it supple from the start of the stroke
• All bearings housed behind weather sealed caps keeping water and grit out

•  Frame designed not to collect mud in any 'pockets'
• External cable routing everywhere
• Bottle cage mount on all sizes

•  Recess placed on downtube for CO2 cannister and tube
• Top tube includes recess for frame bag held in place with magnets
• Threaded bottom bracket
• removable brake mount enables a design for different chainstay lengths and different disc sizes, without using more parts
• 29er with room for up to 2.6" tyres

 

 

Geometry

Now your appetite for a new bike that ticks all the boxes has been whetted we can move smoothly onto the geometry. Its a bike that sits firmly into the long and low sector of the market, it's going to be brawler this one, that's for sure. 

RAAW say "The Madonna is designed for the roughest tracks in the world, it's made to be fast and predictable. The complete package of all angles and lengths makes the bike stable at high speeds and extremely controllable in corners."

 

The geometry chart above reveals the bikes true intentions with a bold and steep effective seat angle, a slack 65 degree head angle and plenty of length in the wheelbase, monster trucker comes to mind!

 

Hidden Extra's 

There are plenty of smaller things that have been thought about too, making this one of the most well thought out bikes we've seen in a while. We're looking forward to seeing if this is a good in real life as it looks on screen!

• Massive tire clearance with room for flexing rear wheels.
• Welds that are positioned so as not to interfere with the tyres
• Room for your feet to move and not interfere with the chainstays.
• Chainstays designed to be as far from the chain as possible, to minimize chain-slap.
• Safe cable-routing that isn’t exposed to rocks under the bike and also doesn’t rub, move, or rattle, even at bottom-outs.
• Pre-cut chainstay and seatstay protection made from ‘3M Scotch Rubber Mastic Tape 2228’ comes with the frame-kit.

The Madonna is available as of today on their new website for a sum of 2,690 Euro's for a frameset.