The Raaw Madonna mountain bike frame was released some five years ago, named after one of the most technical descents in all of Finale Ligure, Madonna della Guardia. Like the trail, this frame has changed a few times over those seasons, losing a little weight and shifting some angles. Today, Raaw has a new iteration of the Madonna, called V2.2. While we don’t often report on these finer frame refinements, we know that this is a well-loved frame across Europe and these improvements will make the great platform even better.
The Madonna V2.2 retains its four 29″ sizes, race-ready geometry, optional rocker links, 160/170mm of travel, and adjustable chain stay lengths. The updates for this new frame are smaller and quite cool. First up, the seat tube is now made from a single hydroformed tube that’s said to create a larger intersection with the rocker pivot while reducing the number of welds. Raaw says that the single-piece tube drops weight and better distributes energy.
Next up, the lower shock mount is no longer attached to the seat tube. Instead, it’s integrated with the bottom bracket, allowing for additional shock clearance on the two smaller frames. On size large and XL frames this new shock placement allowed the engineers to pull the down tube inward, which improves the frame’s ground clearance.
In addition to moving stress from the frame to the BB with this new shock mount, Raaw also redesigned the rocker link so that all of the bearings sit in the link, instead of the frame. Raaw says that moving those rocker bearings reduces frame complexity while “improving the force flow from the rocker link into the seat tube.”
Finally, Raaw added a proprietary dropout and axle system to the frame that they say “is designed to create a rigid connection between the two dropouts. The axle’s
shape locks the left and right seat stays in place, resisting rotation and bending. This adds stiffness to the system, stops the axle from undoing while riding, and reduces the number of individual parts to keep the system silent.”
Frames with shock options from Fox and Öhlins will be available starting in August, with an EU retail price of €2,390, or €2,008 outside the EU.
Check out he video below for a little inspiration, and head over to Raaw MTB for further details.
