RAAW Jibb V2
Wheel Size: 29’’
Travel Options:
- Jibb: 130 mm rear / 150 mm front
- Jibb LT: 141 mm rear / 160 mm front
Geometry Highlights:
- Sizes offered: S, M, L, XL, XXL
- Headtube angle: 64.5° (adjustable)
- Reach: 470 mm (size Large)
- Chainstay length: 450 mm (Size Large, +/- 5 mm via flip chip)
Frame Material: Aluminum
Price: Frame kits from $2,520 (see below for details)
Intro
Raaw described the original Jibb as a smaller sibling to their Madonna Enduro bike, a shorter-travel option that would “not need the most aggressive trails to get it up to operating temperature.”
With the launch of the revised Madonna V3 a few months ago, it was time for a new Jibb to follow suit. Unsurprisingly, the new Jibb V2 incorporates a lot of the Madonna V3’s design features and adjustability into a shorter-travel, more compact package — and the result looks pretty interesting.
The Frame
The Jibb V2 shares most of its design language and features with the Madonna V3, just in a scaled-down package. The Jibb V2 is offered in aluminum only, and gets either 130 or 141 mm of rear-wheel travel (keep reading) from a Horst-link suspension layout with a vertically-oriented shock, paired with either a 150mm or 160mm-travel fork.
The last couple of iterations of the Madonna have been available with two different rocker links, designed to produce the same travel from different-stroke shocks to better cater to riders of different weights. That unusual (but compelling) feature now makes its way over to the Jibb, too.
The Jibb V2’s higher-leverage Rocker 50 option is intended for riders under 90 kg (~200 lb) while the 55mm-stroke setup is meant for folks over that threshold. With their corresponding standard-stroke shocks (in a 185 mm Trunnion length), both rocker links produce 130 mm of rear-wheel travel.
That said, it’s also possible to run a 55mm-stroke shock on the Rocker 50 to get 141 mm of rear travel for the “Jibb LT” configuration. RAAW recommends running a 160mm-travel fork on that setup, and a 150 mm one with the standard Jibb V2. Both linkages deliver a moderately progressive and very linear leverage curve; the Jibb V2 has 21.5% total progression with the Rocker 50 link or 19% with the Rocker 55. Anti-rise is right around 50% and pretty consistent throughout the travel; anti-squat is over 100% around sag in all the gears, but a bit higher in the higher ones and lower as you move up the cassette. The curves fall off to around 80% at bottom out.
The Madonna V3’s swappable shock mounts carry over to the Jibb V2, too. By swapping in different versions of the bolt-on lower shock mount, you can toggle the bottom bracket height up or down by 3 mm, with corresponding subtle changes to the headtube angle and other geometry numbers. There are also versions of the shock mount that either slightly increase or decrease the amount of progression in the leverage curve; RAAW offers nine different versions of the shock mounts to cover all the different combinations of geometry and suspension adjustments.
The prior-generation Jibb offered adjustable-length chainstays via a dropout flip chip, and the V2 maintains the option — you can have your choice of a SRAM UDH (and therefore T-Type groupset compatibility) or chainstay-length adjustment and a normal derailleur hanger, but not both. Packaging a UDH and a flip-chip into the dropout is tough, so RAAW decided to offer an optional UDH-compatible seatstay for folks who want one, but the default option is their own hanger with the chainstay-length adjustability. Alternate seatstay kits are available if you change your mind down the line.
The other frame details are — surprise — also pretty similar to that of the Madonna V3. The Jibb V2’s cable routing is external, its bottom bracket shell threaded, and its chainguide tabs removable. There’s room for a water bottle inside the front triangle, an accessory mount on the underside of the top tube, and the headtube is now a straight 56 mm one to make more room for angle / reach adjusting headsets, too.
Fit & Geometry
The original Jibb topped out at an XL size frame, but the new one (again like the Madonna V3) has added the option for an XXL. The reach on the Jibb V2’s four smaller sizes is unchanged; it starts at 420 mm on the Small and grows in 25 mm steps to 495 mm on the XL. The new XXL size’s reach comes in at 520 mm. That’s 10 mm shorter than the Madonna in a given size.
The Jibb’s headtube angle has been slackened by a full degree, to 64.5°, and its chainstay lengths have grown by 5 mm — once again matching the Madonna V3. That puts the size Small and Medium Jibb V2’s chainstays at a default setting of 445 mm, the Large at 450 mm, and the XL and XXL at 455 mm. And to reiterate, the chainstays are adjustable by +/- 5 mm from their default setting if you forgo the UDH seatstay option.
The Jibb V2’s geometry is notably similar to that of the Madonna V3, but with a few differences. As already mentioned, the Jibb’s reach is 10 mm shorter in a given size, and its headtube is 0.5° steeper. The Jibb also gets a 1° slacker seat tube angle, coming in at 76° effective / 72° actual on the Small and Medium frames, or 77° effective / 74° actual on the bigger ones. The Jibb V2 has slightly shorter (though still notably tall overall) stack heights, but that’s about it.
The two RAAW bikes’ chainstay lengths are the same, as are their bottom bracket heights (35 mm drop). Their differences in reach and seat tube angle essentially cancel each other out in terms of the effective top tube measurements between the Jibb and the Madonna, which are within a millimeter or two in a given size.
Between its shorter reach, steeper headtube angle, and shorter fork, the Jibb V2’s wheelbase is a bit shorter than that of the Madonna V3 (by 24 mm in a given size), but it’ll be interesting to see how similar (or not) they feel on trail, given their similarities in geometry, design, and everything else.
The Builds
As with the Madonna V3, RAAW offers the Jibb V2 as a frame kit with options for rear shocks from Fox and Ohlins, or in a rolling-chassis option with Fox suspension and a few options for wheels, droppers, stems, etc. Check out their website for the details.
Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About
(1) The Jibb V2 shares a lot of its design with the Madonna V3 (which we should be spending time on very soon), and their geometry isn’t too different, either. So how similar (or not) do they feel on trail?
(2) And just how versatile is the Jibb? It’s got classic Trail-bike travel numbers but relatively aggressive geometry and a stout construction, so how does it all add up?
Bottom Line (For Now)
There’s a whole lot of variety in the ~130mm-travel Trail bike market these days, from relatively XC-oriented options to bikes that are most at home on steep, rugged descents. We’d bet on the Jibb landing closer to the latter end of that spectrum than the former, but RAAW’s description of it seems like it might be pretty apt: a bike for folks who might often gravitate to bigger, burlier bikes but want something to make less full-on trails more entertaining.
We’re keen to get some time on a Jibb V2 and will report back if and when we’re able to make it happen.