The team had a strong start to the new race season in February, with a race win as well as podium finishes at the Portugal International Downhill race in Caramulo. Three weeks later we were back at our training venue, Ventoso Gravity Park, for our second Portugal team camp of 2023. Episode 2 of Finding Speed follows the whole team as the riders spent another week in Portugal training and racing, and continues to follow the story of Theo Goodsmith who everyone met in episode 1. Theo, a beginner to mountain biking in 2022, now finds himself on a professional race team, and started the season ..read more

Mountain biking can mean a lot of different things to different people. Having a good time with friends, connecting through social rides, racing, beating your buddies or getting others stoked. The Traction Development Racing Team was founded in 2022 with the aim of covering all of that! That might sound a bit ambitious, but these guys know how to be fast and have a good on their bikes. When Johannes Feling contacted us, we were all ears. The TDR team aims to support young and upcoming enduro racers and positivley impact the sport. A total of eight guys riding our bikes from size small ..read more

We are extremely excited to introduce our new series for 2024, Finding Speed, filmed and edited by LoamLife Media. The series will follow our professional race team and tell the individual rider stories as we move through the race season. Episode 1 takes us to Portugal for the first team training camp of 2024, and the UCI cat 2 Portugal International Downhill race at Caramulo. "What is speed. Speed is subjective. If what feels fast to rider A, feels slow to rider B, then even if rider A has the race run of their life, rider B will still beat them comfortably. Gravity School coaching aims ..read more

It’s no secret that we love downhill at RAAW. It’s properly ingrained in the company and the people. Every one of us owns a downhill bike. Give us half a chance, like a mild winter with minimal snow coverage, and it’ll be the thing we go straight for in the garage over a pair of skis. Since developing the Yalla!, it's been a dream to support racers at World Cup level, be part of downhill racing and have our bike competing at the highest level. Over the past few years now, it’s been a heartwarming project to support and work with privateer racers at the World Cups and help out in any way we ..read more

After returning home from a Canadian riding adventure, Tristan made an abundance of exciting plans all with the clear goal of riding big jumps and showing what freeriding can look like in 2023. In this story, he takes you on his journey, both in his campervan and along his voyage of experiences.  Losing yourself, exploring new paths and seeing failures not as defeat but as valuable experiences is an essential part of every person's maturing process. Regardless of how many inspirational quotes you digest from the thinkers of the day, how often you watch videos of apparent successful pe ..read more

It’s been over a decade that we’ve been winding our way up the Swiss mountain road, landing in an unassuming town at the end of the valley. As your eyes follow the lift cables up to the top of the mountain, you can’t help but think how the hell a track is going to find its way back down? While it really has nothing to do with the day-to-day running of RAAW, there’s a piece of Champéry engrained in RAAW. When we pulled the trigger on developing our Yalla! downhill bike, the concept simply read “A bike for sending down the Champéry World Cup track”. The first samples of the bike were excitedly ..read more

Summer left its marks on me. First of all I had to deal with the bump on my shoulder caused by a blown AC joint, which I like to refer to as my parrot. But secondly, I’m not particularly productive when it's over 30 degrees in the shade. After the parrot fluttered towards me in "Trailland Miesenbach", I had to pass the time with juggling and rehab exercises. Thank goodness I love doing both things. Juggling as well as any kind of physical exercise, so the injury-related time was never really boring, and I also cooked something on the barbecue almost every day. It was also ideal that my girlfr ..read more

The drive over the Glencoe Pass in Scotland is a special one. All of a sudden you feel very small as you meander the rental van through the ominous and towering mountains on either side, keeping an eye out for deer and trying not to ditch the van down the bank as you come face to face with enormous oncoming lorries. Despite all those things that make you grab the steering wheel a little tighter, it’s one of the nicest drives to a race venue. That venue is Fort William. It's been a stop on the World Cup for the past twenty years. Since the beginning, it’s been synonymous with breaking bikes, p ..read more

At the moment, I’m on holiday. More precisely, on forced leave due to injury. To be honest, this time off fits my concept of life very well. It's lovely weather, I'm sitting in the sun, nibbling on my herbs, and reviewing the last few very intense weeks and months. In doing so, I’m trying to laugh as little as possible, as both my cracked ribs and broken shoulder compare any laughter, sneezing or coughing to a sharp stab. After the vitamin D surplus of Mexico, the winter gnawed away at my mental substance, and despite a few exciting Foolhouse Media projects the urge for dusty trails, less res ..read more

After what felt like the longest off-season in the history of long off-seasons, World Cup racing was back upon us and we headed off to Lenzerheide, Switzerland to meet up with the newest additions to the RAAW racing family and see our Yalla! heading down the mountain at speeds that would have most mothers hiding away behind their hands. It was simply wonderful to meet some of the privateers that we support in person. We’d exchanged multiple emails and messages, but it was great to finally shake hands with Gautier, Coen and Nuno and see them flying the RAAW flag. Sharing ideas on lines and bike ..read more