Bike Specs:
Frame Brand/Model and Size: Raaw Madonna V3 – XL
What is your name?
Matt Pearce
How long have you been in the industry?
Relative newcomer. I've been working in media and marketing in the outdoor industry my whole career, but only the last 6–7 years have been spent working in or around MTB. I’ve been at FOX / Race Face for the last two years.
What do you do at Race Face?
I’m International Marketing Manager at Fox Factory, looking after marketing for Race Face, FOX and our other brands outside North America. That covers everything from global marketing initiatives and working with distributors, dealers and bike brands, to media, community engagement and events.
How often do you ride?
Three rides a week is my baseline. I try to fit in more, but that needs to happen around family, a very active three-year-old, work and everything else.
What type of riding do you find yourself doing the most?
Only mountain biking for me. If I’m riding at home, it’s usually enduro/all-mountain style riding on short but steep UK trails. I’ve also started doing eMTB missions with my family, which is great.
What is your favorite local lap?
Where I ride in the UK, it’s all quite under the radar, but my favourite spot is a place called Thrunton Woods. It’s full of steep, rocky natural trails. A lot of them are pretty janky, which is part of the fun, but it’s dicey in the wet.
Worst mechanical to happen mid-ride?
Recently, the motor on a borrowed e-bike developed a fault deep in the backcountry in Finale Ligure. An epic ride became considerably more epic on what was now a 26kg analogue bike.
Favorite song right now?
Camarillo Brillo – Frank Zappa
Solo ride or group ride?
Group rides are great, but I ride alone about 95% of the time. Coordinating with fellow time-limited dads is tricky!
Do you actually stretch or just say you will?
I haven't stretched in at least five years. My 30s have been an extremely inflexible decade.
What part of your bike / body is definitely not okay right now?
I have a list, but my right elbow is particularly bad currently. I should rest it, but it’s summer, so…
What’s the one bike trend you’ll never adopt?
The British MTBers’ tradition of running your brakes the wrong way round. I’m one of the very few Brits that doesn’t do it.
What made you pick/build this bike and the components on it? And why? Any interesting setup/custom parts/things you are excited about?
When we launched the FOX Podium last year, I was looking for a big bike to run it on. I’ve always had a thing for raw alloy bikes, and I really like Raaw’s design philosophy. The Madonna looks pretty no-frills, but there’s a lot of adjustability there, which opens up a ton of setup options.
It’s a proper enduro rig that can chunk through anything, and it’s not exactly light, but I was able to bring that weight down with the ERA wheelset and crankset. It was important to me to trim weight where I could because I regularly go out for pedal days on this bike and, heft aside, it’s still an efficient climber.
I mainly ride clipless, but I do also ride Turbine pedals sometimes because the grip is so good for a flat pedal. I’d say this is the closest I’ve felt to a clipless feel from a flat.
One component that’s really impressed me is the wheelset. I’ve been on the same set since I built the bike and have ridden them pretty hard in bike parks, Finale, the Dolomites and all manner of rocky places around Europe. They’ve been rock solid.
The reach is pretty long, so I’ve played around with stem length and eventually landed on the shortest Turbine at 32 mm. That puts me in a really comfortable place on this bike. I’m also running a Turbine bar. I used to get wicked arm pump on long descents, and the compliance helps, plus there are situations where I just have a bit more confidence in an alloy bar.
I also have a picture of Jesus on the top tube, which our Italian distributor stuck on there. He probably felt I needed a little extra protection on the trails, and I appreciate that.
