TESTED: Forbidden Dreadnought

Three years ago, Forbidden Bike Company burst on to the scene with their first bike – The Druid. Centred around their ‘Trifecta’ linkage design, this bike took the industry by surprise. Seldom seen in the modern era at the time, The Druid was a 130mm travel idler equipped, high single pivot 29er trail bike boasting a 100% rearward axle path and a front to rear sizing ratio which was maintained across all sizes. In a market flooded with Horst Link and dual link style bikes Forbidden came in swinging with a design which had a genuine point of difference. The Druid garnered praise not only for being different but also for taking a risk in what was Forbidden’s first offering. 

Now, Forbidden are back with their new Enduro bike named the Dreadnought – and it carries with it all the buzz words and promises to get a gravity rider such as myself salivating. Longer travel, more capable, available in mixed wheel or full 29” – the team from Forbidden have ticked the boxes. But how does it stand up in the current market, and does it deliver on exceeding the expectations set by the Druid? Over the past 3 years we have seen quite a few other high pivot and virtual high pivot bikes come to the market such as the GT Force, Norco Range and Cannondale Jekyll. 

Initial impressions

First things first, this bike in the ‘Nerds’ colour way makes for an eye-catching piece of Canadian engineering. No matter where I took it, I noticed it had grabbed the attention of other riders, passers-by or even an old couple at the local café. As echoed by Ryan in his review of the Norco Range C2, everyone loves to ask about the idler pulley. What is it? Why is it there? Fortunately, I love talking tech and relished every opportunity to explain in brief the design ethos behind the Dreadnought. 

Using a high single pivot, Forbidden can design a bike which has a rearward axle path as the frame goes through its travel. In this case the chain stay length grows by a whopping 30mm as the bike compresses through its 154mm of rear travel. The idler pulley allows Forbidden to isolate the chain growth forces from the crankset, meaning that there is no feeling of pedal kick-back typically associated with rearward axle path bikes. Careful positioning of the size and location of the idler pulley has also allowed the designers to achieve their desired amount of anti-rise, with the rate decreasing from 131% to 105% through the travel. In theory, this allows the bike to sit high it its travel under heavy rear braking, keeping the suspension active and riders body weight centred on the bike even when things get wild. To further compound the centralised body positioning on the Dreadnought, both the front and rear centre lengths grow proportionally to each other across all the sizes. Called ‘One Ride’, this has been done to ensure that all riders feel the same balance of weight bias regardless of if you are on a small or an extra-large frame. Forbidden have attained this by moving the bottom bracket forward relative to the suspension linkage as you move up through the sizes, therefore achieving an increased rear centre length without making noticeable changes to the leverage ratio and kinematics of the bike. 

The Dreadnought is also one of the few bikes on the market today which has increasing seat tube angles per size. Once again, this is done so riders both short and tall riders stay in what Forbidden consider to be the optimal location for both comfort and efficiency when climbing. Speaking of efficiency, the Dreadnought has a high amount of anti-squat as is typically seen on idler equipped bikes. Thanks to this, the bike should remain high in its travel even under heavy pedalling loads, garnering both high levels of traction and an efficient power transfer to compensate for the additional watts which are required to turn that attention grabbing idler. 

Currently available as a frame equipped with a Fox Float X2 for $5899.95 here in Australia, the Dreadnought ships with spare hardware such as a rear mud guard and chain guide. It is ready to be built up to your spec of choice in either mixed wheel or full 29” configurations. This Dreadnought was built up in full 29” spec with components also available through DanJas imports, the Australian distributor for Forbidden. We Are One wheels and cockpit were combined with a mix of Shimano componentry, DVO suspension and a One Up dropper to get this rig ready for action. 

Closer inspection of the carbon fibre frame reveals a high-end finish fitting of a bespoke frame at this price point.  Internally routed cables with capability to run your brakes on either side is a welcome sight. The frame hardware is of a high fit and finish featuring 5mm and 6mm hex heads throughout excluding the main pivot which takes a 10mm hex. There is also a bottle cage and tool mount within the front triangle along with a sneaky little storage compartment hiding in front of the bottom bracket, accessed through a bolt-on cover under the down tube. The rear axle is 148x12mm bolt up, which is paired with a 180mm post mount for your rear brake and 73mm threaded bottom bracket shell. Kudos to Forbidden here for not taking the easy (and cheaper) route of speccing a press fit BB to the Dreadnought. 

Shock sizing is the ever popular 205x65mm trunnion, meaning there are plenty of aftermarket options available should the stock unit not tickle your fancy. The leverage ratio lends itself to more linear shocks, as it ramps up quite hard at the end of the stroke. To match this the stock Fox Float X2 ships with no volume spacers installed. It is worth mentioning that I found the spring rate charts to be around 10% higher than what I needed personally to get the ride characteristic which I was looking for. I eventually settled on a rate of 345lb/in on the DVO Jade X rather that the recommended 375-400 for my weight. While the bike doesn’t ship with a thick user manual like the days of old, there is a myriad of technical resources available on their web site covering all things Dreadnought – be it linkage servicing, drive train optimisation, suspension guides or hardware specifications. Home mechanics rejoice! 

On the trail

Like most of us out there, my rides begin at the bottom of the hill. No matter how much of a demon the Dreadnought is on the descents if I can’t pedal it to the top under my own steam it’s of no use to me as a trail bike. Fortunately, this Forbidden is a comfortable and relatively efficient climber. While I could feel the full 17kg weight underneath me on long fire road climbs the 77.1° seat tube angle had me nice and upright even on the steepest of sections. There is some chatter around with regards to idler drag on bikes of this design, but in all honesty, I didn’t notice it. You can hear an additional muted whir from the idler when pedalling but its something I quickly became accustomed to. 

Once the climbing got narrower and more technical the Trifecta linkage started to show its cards. The bike has massive amounts of traction thanks to its high levels of anti-squat, meaning there was always plenty of usable suspension travel available when navigating even the chunkiest of uphills under power. The 464mm rear centre took some getting used to, as it hit obstacles later than I was expecting – but this was nothing a small technique change couldn’t overcome. One thing I did battle with a little more is the overall wheelbase (1325mm) and slack head angle (63.5°) over tight uphill terrain. The bike felt a little unruly around tight turns, wanting to flop over sideways. Again, a change in technique to picking wider lines and doing more track stands and hopping to get the big rig around the tight stuff solved this issue. I can confidently say this bike takes a little more forward thinking to get up twisty tight single track than what I am used to. 

My first few experiences of descending on this bike were almost comical. I could not believe how well it took square edge chop, chatter, and big compressions. Thanks to the rearward axle path, the Dreadnought absolutely eats bumps while maintaining its composure. Through the considered optimisation of the high single pivot design, the wheelbase is maintained as the fork and shock both compress, rather than shortening like it does on non-high pivot bikes. This leads to a feeling of unmatched stability, which seemed to increase the harder I pushed. The long rear chain stays paired with a slightly shorter reach (506mm in XL) than what we are seeing from many other brands had me feeling central on the bike with a good balance of weight on the front end, even under braking or on steep terrain. Many XL enduro bikes without size specific chain stays are characterised as being very light in the front end and lacking steering feel in steep sections compared to their more balanced counterparts. The high levels of anti-rise paired with the axle path gave me the confidence to bomb through rough sections faster than ever and brake even later, knowing that the bike would stay active and stable even under heavy braking. This bike is also deathly quiet, with no audible chain slap coming from the rear of the bike. The chain line, chain guide and seat stay protection combined make for a truly quiet ride which also had infallible chain retention.

I also spent my fair share of time riding the Dreadnought on the Thredbo flow and all mountain trails which are full of big swooping berms and jumps. The Forbidden definitely required more input to keep it leant over and on line through long fast turns, as the extending wheelbase mid-corner makes the bike feel as though it wants to stand up a little more than I am used to. Aggression is key to riding it well. I also felt that I could not get as much pop off small little lips and bumps on the trail, which is to be expected on a bike with proportions and a linkage such as this. Big jumps on the other hand, were an absolute dream. Long lips and hard landings had the wheelbase stretching out, making this bike the most stable I have ever had the pleasure of piloting. The progressive nature of the linkage through the end of the stroke limited me from ever finding bottom out, althought the aggressive ramp of the shock could definetly be felt through my feet upon hard impacts. Eventually it became obvious that the more you let this chassis carry its momentum and sink into its travel the better, no matter what was in its course. 

As with climbing, I felt the bike to take a little more thought on low speed, tight trails where the long wheelbase can be a hinderance. Unfortunately, the Dreadnoughts immense capability at speed and through the rough comes at the sacrifice of a little manoeuvrability on tight, low-speed trails. This is to be expected with a bike designed for high-speed gravity racing. 

Our take

Following up from the Druid release in 2019, Forbidden had some big shoes to fill. 2022 now presents a market which is more diverse and with higher expectations than that of old, meaning the Dreadnought would need to deliver on all fronts to be a success. To me, I feel they have achieved in producing what they set out for – that being a long legged, highly capable enduro bike that is as comfortable doing big mountain epics as it is smashing runs at your local downhill track. The recent exploits of Connor Fearon and Tim Eaton on the national circuit show that this chassis is more than capable when converted to a DH race bike, meaning the Dreadnought could also make for a great quiver killer for the money conscious privateer racer who wants to race both enduro and Downhill without having two bikes in the garage. 

I would also argue that this bike may be appropriate to have as your do it all mountain bike. To me, my daily driver needs to be able to handle anything I want to throw at it. While people say you should get a bike to best suit 85% of the riding you do. I want one that can handle 100% of the riding I want to do, particularly when the highlights of my years riding include trips to Maydena, Queenstown or Whistler. I want a bike that can do it all and am happy to sacrifice a few seconds on a climb in achieving that. To me, that is where high pivot enduro bikes come into their own. The ability of the Dreadnoughts 154mm of rear travel to eat bumps far outweighs what I was expecting without it being an absolute slug on the climbs – meaning you can happily trail ride Monday to Friday and shuttle on Sunday on this eye-catching Canadian beauty. 

Love big bikes? Read our Norco Range C2 review!