Bike Check: KJ Sharp's RAAW DH
When I spoke to Dan Roberts from RAAW about KJ's bike for Fort William he had this to say: "We’ve got it set up to have her in a comfortable, aggressive but more importantly a balanced position on the bike with the suspension in that lovely window where the wheels are fluttering fast enough over all the rocks while keeping the wildness in check when the bigger rocks and holes need to be dealt with.
"Confidence in the tire grip seems to be paramount at Fort William, especially in the front tire. So loading it enough to allow the rider to sort of forget about it, raise their eye line and be bang on with their lines and carrying speed, all the while not overloading it and taking a load off the back and having traction issues at the rear. It’s a tough track for everyone involved in making the bike and rider go fast.
"The whole bike is a special feature really. It won’t be available until early 2023, so this year is all about racing the bike and tweaking the hell out of it to be the best it can be while putting it well and truly through its paces at the highest level of competition."
"Confidence in the tire grip seems to be paramount at Fort William, especially in the front tire. So loading it enough to allow the rider to sort of forget about it, raise their eye line and be bang on with their lines and carrying speed, all the while not overloading it and taking a load off the back and having traction issues at the rear. It’s a tough track for everyone involved in making the bike and rider go fast.
"The whole bike is a special feature really. It won’t be available until early 2023, so this year is all about racing the bike and tweaking the hell out of it to be the best it can be while putting it well and truly through its paces at the highest level of competition."
KJ Sharp // 555 RAAW Gravity Racing
Sponsors 555 RAAW Gravity Racing, RAAW Mountain Bikes, Sprung Suspension, Juice Lubes, Renthal, Crankbrothers, Fox Suspension, DT Swiss, NetPerformance & Roy Brannen’s Cooking
Age: 27 (Mental age, sometimes 75, sometimes 12)
Hometown: Skipton, Yorkshire, UK
Height: 169cm
Weight: 63kg
Instagram: @kj.sharp
Sponsors 555 RAAW Gravity Racing, RAAW Mountain Bikes, Sprung Suspension, Juice Lubes, Renthal, Crankbrothers, Fox Suspension, DT Swiss, NetPerformance & Roy Brannen’s Cooking
Age: 27 (Mental age, sometimes 75, sometimes 12)
Hometown: Skipton, Yorkshire, UK
Height: 169cm
Weight: 63kg
Instagram: @kj.sharp
 | I love my RAAW DH. She’s spacious, supple, scrumptious, sleek, sexy, saucy, strong, and speedy. |
RAAW DH
Frame: RAAW DH 198mm of travel
Shock: Fox DHX2 Factory
Fork: Sprung suspension custom Fox 40 200mm of travel
Wheels: 29" DT Swiss EX 471 wheelset
Tires: Maxxis Minion DHR II front and rear
Chainring: Hope 36 tooth with Ochain
Cranks: Hope 165mm length
Pedals: Crankbrothers Mallet DH
Cassette: SRAM GX DH
Derailleur: Shimano Saint
Shifter: Shimano Saint
Brakes: Shimano XTR blacked out edition.
Rotors: One Shimano 203mm and one Galfer 203mm. When the Shimano one wears out, then both Galfer!
Pads: Galfer advanced front and rear
Handlebar: Renthal Fatbar Carbon
Stem: Renthal Direct Mount
Grips: Renthal Traction Lock On Ultra Tacky
Size: Medium
Weight: 17.4kg / 38.4 lb
Frame: RAAW DH 198mm of travel
Shock: Fox DHX2 Factory
Fork: Sprung suspension custom Fox 40 200mm of travel
Wheels: 29" DT Swiss EX 471 wheelset
Tires: Maxxis Minion DHR II front and rear
Chainring: Hope 36 tooth with Ochain
Cranks: Hope 165mm length
Pedals: Crankbrothers Mallet DH
Cassette: SRAM GX DH
Derailleur: Shimano Saint
Shifter: Shimano Saint
Brakes: Shimano XTR blacked out edition.
Rotors: One Shimano 203mm and one Galfer 203mm. When the Shimano one wears out, then both Galfer!
Pads: Galfer advanced front and rear
Handlebar: Renthal Fatbar Carbon
Stem: Renthal Direct Mount
Grips: Renthal Traction Lock On Ultra Tacky
Size: Medium
Weight: 17.4kg / 38.4 lb
KJ is riding the new RAAW DH frame in size Medium which is running 198mm of travel. The RAAW DH frame offers a lot of adjustment, but KJ is running her bottom backet in the mid position, giving a mid progression setting for the shock and mid chainstay length too. There is a reach adjust headset fitted set in the mid position on the reach (455mm), and the head angle is set at 63-degrees.
In keeping with RAAW's user-friendly frame design, the DH has fully external cable routing for both the gear cable and the rear brake.
Like the Madonna and the Jibb, the DH has larger bearings with extra sealing to keep them rotating smoothly.
KJ is running 165mm Hope cranks with a Hope 36T chainring, and an OChain set to 9 degrees.
Ok, so brakes are where things get a little different rotor wise. There is one Shimano 203mm and one Galfer 203mm. When the Shimano one wears out, it will be changed to a Galfer 203mm. If it isn't broken don't fix it right? The brakes themselves are a set of Shimano 4 pot XTRs. Inside the XTR brakes, you will find a set of Galfer advanced pads in both the front and rear.
This is no ordinary Fox 40. This is a totally custom fork from Jake Ireland at Sprung Suspension in the UK. It has a custom air spring with some chassis tinkering and damper tuning by Sprung Suspension. It is running 203mm travel and has some Mojo crowns to shorten the offset. Settings wise the fork has 67psi of air in it, with the low-speed rebound set to 14 clicks. Low-speed compression 20 clicks. High-speed compression fully open (all clicks from fully closed)
The shock is a Fox DHX2 Factory, once again custom tuned by Sprung Suspension. 225mm shock length, 75mm stroke. It is fitted with a 400lbs spring. The low-speed rebound is set to 13 clicks. High-speed rebound 6 clicks. Low-speed compression 10 clicks. High-speed compression 8 clicks (all clicks from fully closed).
Maxxis Minion DHR II on the front and rear of her RAAW. With 22 psi in the front and 24 psi in the rear these are fitted to a set of DTswiss DT Swiss EX 471 29" wheels.
With the current parts shortages we'll probably be seeing more obscured logos than ever this season.
The cockpit of KJ's RAAW DH is a full Renthal set up with a Renthal Fatbar Carbon, 31.8 diameter, running 765mm wide with grips mounted to the forks with a Renthal Direct mount stem which is 45mm long with no rise. Under the stem, there are 10mm spacers fitted. All finished off with Renthal's Classic Traction Lock On Ultra Tacky grips
Author Info:
Member since Nov 28, 2019
Must Read This Week
Oh my god, better cancel my Madonna order. What kind of savage makes a bike these days without proprietary through-headset cable routing?
Funny that the DH bike is hardly heavier than my Madonna
Love it though and am not bothered by its heft, but delighted time and again by its reliability.
I didn’t understand it until I saw this. But im stupid!
youtu.be/4Uk5zZunmww
But regarding my question, @dan-roberts can you say, how short the offset of her fork is now?
The Stock fox49 fork offset is 58mm
www.mojo.co.uk/morc-40-mojo-offset-reduction-crowns-1008-p.asp
Same steering mechanics apply to moto2. They do downhill braking into corners too
www.singletracks.com/mtb-gear/fork-offset-basics-and-what-it-means-for-you
Exactly.
Why advertise for free??
I don't know any other industry where anyone would accept the lazy QC on something as important as alignment, and especially at the price points in the bike world.
It's a travesty to be honest, one of the main reasons I bought a Last frame, I've had it for 5 years now, and still haven't worn out a single pivot bearing, even with many bike park trips and a lot of really rough riding.
Alignment matters.
And on a related note, why don't more standard shocks use spherical bearings instead of bushings at they eyelets? Think I've only seen them on Curnutt (Foes) and EXT?
The 198mm travel trigger me though. Just make it 200 or a little more. Otherwise it can be "officialy" a DH bike. RIGHT????
They go in the tire now. hah