- It is pretty well-rounded,
but there are areas when it showed more, rather than less,
that's not... I will not say that.
(everybody laughing)
- It's more of a square than circle, sometimes a square.
- I'll throw it to you again. - Okay.
(upbeat electronic music)
- Until recently, RAAW's only bike was the Madonna:
an aluminum heavy hitter with a lot of travel
and a lot of capability.
But what if you don't need all that?
That's where the new Jibb comes in.
It's got 135 millimeters of travel,
runs 150 millimeter fork, and is rolling on 29 inch wheels.
RAAW describes it as bringing the Madonna's DNA
to a more well-rounded package.
First things first, just like the Madonna,
RAAW builds the Jibb out of aluminum
and the finished product definitely
has that industrial ready-for-anything look.
It also has what appears to be the largest main pivot
on any bike ever, cable routing is all external,
and they're held in place by simple bolt on clamps.
Now those lines run along the top of the down tube
and that down tube is actually shaped
with a concave at the bottom of it
for the cables to sit in.
At the back of the bike,
you're gonna find a post-mount setup
for a 203 millimeter rotor,
you'll also find a full set of ISCG tabs,
boosts hub spacing, and a threaded bottom bracket.
Now the Jibb, it may be a Trail bike,
but RAAW definitely wanted
some of the Madonna's DNA in here
and that's why this bike has 35 millimeters
of static bottom bracket drop,
the same as the much longer travel Madonna.
Now, of course, you're gonna be running
less sag on this bike,
so it's definitely gonna be sitting a little bit higher.
Reach numbers, start off at 420
and they go to 495 millimeters.
This large size test bike, 470 millimeter front-end.
Chainstay lengths also grow as the size goes up.
Now, it starts off at 440 millimeters
for the small and medium, 445 for this bad boy,
and it goes up to 450 for the largest size.
All right, it's time to talk about suspension.
And the Jibb uses a four bar system to deliver
that 135 millimeters of travel.
RAAW says that has a 15% change
in leverage through the travel,
and that means that the bike definitely works best
with an air sprung shock like ours came fitted with,
but you can definitely fit a coil over.
Another thing to point out,
sealed bearing shock mounts at both,
the lower and upper shock mount locations,
and that should help that air shock feel very, very smooth.
All right, if you're looking for your own Jibb,
well, RAAW doesn't sell a complete bike,
so you're gonna pick up a frame and shock only.
Now it's obvious that RAAW has other things
on their mind besides grams, but that doesn't mean
that we get to skip talking about weight.
This frame without a shock is 7.9 pounds.
So as far as Trail bikes go, it's not exactly a lightweight,
but then again, that's not the goal here.
All right, that is enough gibbering on for me.
Let's talk to Kaz and Alicia
and see what this bike is like on the trail.
(calm music)
All right. So, of all the Trail X here, Kaz,
if I were just to guess, just by looking at them,
I would assume that the Jibb is the slowest climber.
Would I be assuming incorrectly?
- Yes, you'd be wrong.
Yeah. Imagine that. - Yeah, who would've thought?
(everybody chuckling)
- No, I mean, realistically it does look like a big tank,
but like- - Yeah.
- It doesn't ride like one.
You know, the wheel it is a little bit on the heavier side,
but I got along with it well.
It does have more of a ground hugging feel
rather than something just wants to accelerate
and just, you know, super snappy sprinting,
but there's not a ton of unwanted suspension movement.
Even with that Float X2 the suspension is very subtle,
but the position you're in due to that steep C2 bengal,
it just helps it make sure that it's not
just bobbing up and down when you don't want it to.
There is a climb switch,
but I really didn't need to use it much at all.
- Yeah. Alicia, what did you think of the climbing?
Especially under power, out of the saddle,
you're on a Trail bike, you're faced with a big steep pitch.
What does the Jibb do?
- It's actually surprisingly efficient.
I like you looked at it
and didn't think it was gonna climb very well
and it wasn't the lightest bike on test,
so it didn't exactly run up the hill,
but it did skip along nicely
and it was just, it was pretty good.
It was efficient, I didn't really reach for the climbs,
which at all, for the most part.
- [Mike] Okay, yeah. And what about in the tech stuff?
Does it give you the traction that you need
to get up those things?
Or something like the Ghost with the coil sprung shock?
I would imagine that provides more traction
when you need it.
- [Kaz] Yeah. I mean, in this case,
the geometry of the Jibb helps out with that,
compared to the Ghosts, you know,
the Ghosts might be maybe a little more subtle
do the coil shock, but this Float X2...
And also the fact that Float X2 has,
there's bearings at all points.
So it's nice and supple, plenty of traction.
It's been raining for, you know,
it feels like a month up here,
so, we take all the traction I can get.
So it does very well in that department.
And then the handling is, I call it extra neutral
because you don't have to fight the bike to do anything.
It's not the snappiest, but it's not sluggish.
Just kind of right in the middle of the road, you know,
it just kind of gets the job done
more kind of purposeful feeling
rather than something that inspires you
to just be a crazy sprinter.
- Right, yeah.
So in that tight stuff, Alicia,
how would you compare it to the other bikes?
Is it, I mean, it looks, like we've already mentioned,
it looks like a big bike that's really made to go downhill,
but when you get into that tight stuff,
is it a handful or is it manageable?
- [Alicia] It's pretty manageable.
It's actually for how burly it is.
It's not very long and it's pretty nimble.
And so, it performs pretty well compared to like a Ghost.
I think there's also a mental component
where you get on the Jibb
and it just feels pretty snappy,
and pretty enjoyable to ride, and it's more motivating
than some of the other bikes on test.
- Right. Now, speaking of motivating,
let's talk about the efficiency test for a minute.
So Henry Queenie did all the bikes
on the efficiency test out of the trail bikes.
Kaz, where did that Jibb come in?
- The Jibb tied for first place
with the Stumpjumper EVO and...
- [Mike] How would've thought?
- [Kaz] I was surprised. - [Alicia] I don't think...
- [Kaz] But apparently it is extra efficient.
- There you go. Yup. - Yeah.
(energetic electronic music)
- Okay. So the efficiency test is behind us.
That brings us to the important part of the review.
The descending. Kazimer, the damn bike is called the Jibb?
You better be pretty damn jibby, right? Playful?
- Not so much.
- You were nose bonking everything, manualing everywhere.
- It's like not a jib bike.
I mean, it's kind of funny that to people,
even when it first came out,
people would poke fun at the name of it,
but it's not a jib bike.
And if I'm thinking of a bike for jibing,
people that don't know what that does mean
kind of hopping and playing around, goofing off,
you kind of probably want some of those smaller wheels,
maybe a little bit shorter back-end.
- Maybe even the Score. - Right.
- The Score might be a better jib bike, yeah.
For this one, it just has that, you know,
it's very balanced and it does very well and just a sense,
but it's more of kind of a, you know,
just suck up all the bumps in a straight line.
I mean, and it can turn as well,
but just doesn't have that snap that you might expect
from a bike that is called the Jibb.
- [Mike] So Alicia, if it's not very jibby,
what are the strengths of the bike? Where does it excel?
- [Alicia] Well, it excels when it's really steep and rough.
I first turned on kind of flattered trails
and I wasn't in love with it
because it was so ground hungry
that I felt like it was wanting to dive into all the holes
rather than kind of hop over things
the way I tend to prefer Trail bikes.
But once it was on the steep stuff,
it was really, really great. And...
- [Mike] I mean, to be fair too though,
but their are other bike, the Madonna,
is probably more jibby than that.
- [Kaz] It is more jibby than the Madonna, so yeah.
(Mike laughs) - [Alicia] Yeah.
- [Mike] I'm just saying!
- [Kaz] Yeah. No, it's more jibby,
doesn't have a steeper head to bang up
by a degree and a half.
So, and it really is a, it's like a mini Madonna.
- [Mike] Yeah. - [Kaz] And it's, so...
- [Alicia] Many, many DH bike? - [Kaz] Yeah, you can call it.
- [Mike] Do you think that with different suspension tuning,
somebody could get this bike to be more playful
or is that something that's inherent in the design?
- I think it's hard with the weight
and just how solid the bike feels. It's so planted.
- [Mike] Yeah. - [Alicia] I mean, it just,
it's nature is good, but it's not jibby.
- [Mike] Yeah. - [Kaz] Yeah,
I think you could, maybe if you put like,
a Fox Float X on there, something along those lines.
But either way you still have moderately long chainstays,
I think they're in 443 round 445, somewhere around there.
The reach is, the reach is moderate to head to bang.
Let's all kind of like all these numbers
that's not, not breaking any new ground,
but I think it does it very well what it's designed for.
- [Mike] You guys both touched on something there
that the bike feels super solid when it's rough.
Do you think that comes down to those big aluminum tubes?
And like, the size of that main pivot is it's huge.
Does, is that why it feels like that?
- Potentially, yeah.
It's a little overbuilt for what it is.
I mean, it's a 135 bike,
but it feels so much bigger than that.
- Yeah. - Which is good.
I think it, it feels really barely.
It'll probably last for a hundred years
and those bearings, they're oversized
and they have varying capsule on them,
maintenance will probably be really easy.
- Kaz, one thing I want to touch on,
you mentioned to me actually,
out on the trail is that you were wondering
what the Jibb would feel like
with a little bit slacker hitting,
well, maybe a little less trail biking.
- Yeah. It's a tricky, kind of a tricky question
because RAAW already has the Madonna in their lineup,
that's the 160 bike that has the slacker head angle,
also has the more travel.
But the way that this bike handles kind of just,
it already does have that downhill, hungry feel,
just a little less traveled.
So, yeah, I think for me,
I kind of wouldn't mind if it had
a little slacker head angle
because it isn't your playful and lively bike
that you would expect to go with those geometry numbers.
So you might as well embrace it, I think.
But as it is, it's still,
I don't think that angle really held it back
very much, either. - Yeah.
Before we move on from descending,
let's touch on timing as always.
How did that go for you guys? Alicia?
What was your...?
Where did the bike place in your downhill times?
- It was one of my middle bikes.
So, not the fastest, not the slowest,
just really efficient, pretty consistent
and I believe it was third.
- [Mike] Do you think your time,
so both of you rode the RAAW to third place.
Do you think that you both talked a lot about how like,
the bike sort of like, strikes middle ground with everything
and I don't think it's a coincidence,
it's also sort of like right smack down
in the middle of the timing.
It doesn't have any outstanding features
that set it apart from something maybe,
but it's also good at kind of all the things
you think that's fair?
- [Kaz] Yeah, that's definitely fair.
I think it's, yeah, it's almost a boring bike but it's not,
because it's really just, it's like, so purpose-built.
I think, you know, in my notes somewhere I wrote like,
this is a Mountain Bike with a capital M, capital B.
It's like, do you want a mountain bike?
Well here, there's this bike
and go uphill, go downhill does things well,
it doesn't particularly shine in anyone,
but all of them kind of just like,
it's just built to do this.
(calm electronic music)
- Now you guys already mentioned that you get the Jibb
as a frame only, and you build it up, how you want it.
Ours obviously came as a complete bike
and we've got some stuff to talk about there, don't we?
- [Kaz] And for me, the one thing about this bike was
how quiet it was, and part of that
is due to the Newmen carbon wheels
and the hub itself on them.
- [Mike] You don't, you don't like the buzz?
- No, I love quiet wheels
and these ones are almost dead silent,
just like a tiny ti-ti-ti, and it's so quiet.
- Do you like the buzz?
- I love the Newman wheels. I love the silence.
- [Mike] Alicia, you mentioned the brakes as well.
Now they were mostly trouble-free,
but we've seen some issues with Shimano brakes
over the past couple of years
and it looks like we're seeing them again.
- Yeah. I mean, they do have the wondering bite point
that you kind of come to expect the Shimano brakes.
They work really well most of the time.
So it's just that little bit of an issue
if they could make them consistent, they would be amazing.
- Kaz, the last thing we should talk about:
Fox dropper posts.
We usually see these things running super smooth,
no problems, but not the case here.
- [Kaz] Yeah, you've gotta have good luck with them.
This one started getting a little bit sticky
towards the top of the saddle, last 20 millimeters or so.
Have a strong suspicion that's due to the steady diet
of mud and rain we've been feeding it.
- So wet. - Yeah.
So I think a little bit of lube,
a little of maintenance will probably take care of it,
but something worth noting
it's happened on a couple of the bikes here,
but if you're riding in mud, pay more attention to those.
(calm electronic music)
- All right, we're going to talk models and pricing.
And unlike the other videos, this is a real quick section,
Alicia? - Well, you got one option.
It's a frame only for $2,600 US.
And it's a little more money than you'll spend
from some other companies for just a frame,
but you get something really good, really well-made,
something barely for the last a long time.
- [Mike] I also think it's neat that it's unique.
You know? - [Alicia] I agree.
- [Mike] It's not a giant, it's not a specialized
sort of tracking and they make great bikes.
But, when was the last time you guys saw RAAW
at the trail head? You don't really see them anywhere.
I think that's something to call it, I think.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
We should mention that that 2,600 is with the Float X2.
They do offer a bunch of different shock options.
So, be a little less if you just got the frame alone, but,
yeah. - Right.
(soft music)
That brings us to pros and cons.
Next, Kaz lead us off with the positive stuff first.
- [Kaz] The pros, I think is just how well-rounded it is.
If you do want a burly Trail bike, this bike, you know,
all those little details are taken care of.
External came around is really simple,
well sealed bearings, just kind of a solid,
you know, robust spending.
(soft music)
- Alicia, I'm gonna throw it to you for the negatives.
Tell me what you didn't like.
- Yeah. I mean, just to start off, it's not super light.
So if you're looking for the ultra climber,
that's not gonna be it.
But also, it's not a hundred percent well-rounded
everywhere, all the time.
Like, there's some trails where it really excels
and some trails where it just doesn't as much.
I found that it got really bogged down
in some of the corners and in holes
on kind of flatter more winding up and down trails.
And I didn't love the way it would kind of
wanna be pumped really aggressively through everything.
So, if you're not a super aggressive rider,
it is probably not for you.
And it's definitely not for lazy riders.
If you stop trying, it will stop moving.
- Right. I think that's important to point out
because when I hear Trail bike,
I think of a bike that's kinda good everywhere.
You know? It excels at all the things
and that's not always the case.
Some of these trail bikes just,
they tend to excel a little more than other bikes
in some places and a little less than other places. So...
- It'll do the things you just have to really tell it.
- Right, exactly. Yeah.
(calm electronic music)
All right. We're gonna wrap this review up
by talking about who best suits the RAAW Jibb. Kazimer?
- Yeah. I think we were talking about an aggressive rider.
Someone that's not afraid to push a bike a little bit.
This bike does wake up the more kind of
more you put into it.
So, lazy riders probably need not apply,
someone that's looking for the lightest bike
that's not going to be either,
but somebody that wants something tough, reliable,
and just kind of smack dab in the middle of road geometry.
That's the RAAW Jibb.
- [Mike] All right, that is it for the RAAW Jibb.
Let us know what you guys think in the comments.
Is this aluminum trail bikes something you would consider?
Or are you looking for something less capable and lighter?
Maybe even more capable.
And remember to subscribe
so you don't miss any Field Test videos
and we'll see you next time.
(soft music)