First Rides: The Forbidden Dreadnought E
Ever since Forbidden got into the E-Bike game last year with their Avinox powered Druid E, there has been a real buzz around these new machines. With some truly unique geometry, a World Cup proven suspension system and a distinctive silhouette they stand out a mile in a sea of similar looking bikes. This year they added a second E-Bike to their range, in the form of the long travel Dreadnought E, a bike which on paper looks absolutely ideal for the steep and technical trails around our home in the Tweed Valley.
The only problem so far has been getting a ride on one! Ever since the Druid E launched, we have received countless demo requests but as a relatively small, boutique brand making highly in-demand E-Bikes, Forbidden simply hasn’t been able to keep up with the demand. Until very recently, the only way to ride a Forbidden E-Bike was to put a deposit down, hold out until the bike arrived, and cross your fingers that you would like it.
This year, they’ve finally managed to hold a handful of bikes aside in the UK for demos and so while they were up visiting us in the Tweed Valley at our demo weekend recently, we jumped at the chance to throw a leg over the Dreadnought E.
Dreadnought E Geometry & High-Pivot Suspension
As the longest-travel E-Bike Forbidden has made to date, the Dreadnought E combines a 180mm fork with 170mm of rear wheel travel. Paired with some very aggressive geometry and their signature high-pivot suspension design, the result claims to be a bike that’s closer to a downhill race bike with a motor than anything else on the market.
Looking into the geometry, a 63’ head angle is slacker than average, and 20mm of bottom bracket drop is low for a bike of this travel but where things get more uniquely ‘Forbidden’, is the relationship between Reach, Stack and Chainstay and Wheelbase. Where most ‘normal’ Medium frames have reach numbers hovering around 460mm paired with a Stack of about 630mm, the S2 Dreadnought that Neil was riding features a considerably shorter Reach at just 445mm, but a far taller Stack at 648mm.
Riders who are used to looking at Reach numbers when sizing a bike might mistakenly assume the Dreadnought E runs small. In practice, the numbers instead mean that the rider simply stands in a more upright position on the bike with a higher handlebar in front of them than normal. A glance at the total wheelbase gives a truer indication of the bike's real footprint: the S2 measures up at a stable 1256mm, while the S3 (Large) stretches to a lengthy 1298mm.
That short-and-tall rider cockpit might feel a bit odd in the car park, but Forbidden say it places you in a strong, confidence inspiring posture once the bike is pointed down a steep hill, keeping your weight balanced when the trail falls away. If you look closely at the geometry charts of modern DH race bikes, you’ll see very similar sets of numbers.
The other unique aspect of Forbidden’s geometry is what they term "Proportional Geometry." More than any other bike brand, they scale their rear center measurements across the size range to ensure the front-to-rear weight balance stays identical for every rider height. The S2 frame we spent the most time on sports a fairly traditional 449mm chainstay length, but larger Dreadnoughts get very long chainstays indeed to balance their increased reach, stretching to 463mm on the S3 and 478mm on the S4. Most of our test time was spent on the S2, so keep those longer rear ends in mind if you are looking at the larger sizes.
As with all their models, the Dreadnought E utilizes a high-pivot layout with the chain re-routed through an upper idler pulley. This allows Forbidden to tune anti-squat and pedal kickback independently of the rearward axle path. The kinematic charts suggest neutral pedal behavior, active suspension under braking, and a highly progressive leverage curve (nearly 30%), offering plenty of bottom-out support from the linkage.
Because the rearward axle path allows the rear wheel to move up and back from frontal hits, the chainstay actually grows as the bike pushes into its travel. This means the Dreadnought's wheelbase shrinks much less than most bikes when deep in the stroke, adding high-speed stability exactly when you need it most.
The Power Plant: DJI Avinox System
Before diving into our ride impressions, we have to mention the motor. The DJI Avinox M2S is arguably the most talked-about piece of mountain bike tech right now, boasting power and torque figures that sit far above almost everything else out there.
Serving up a massive 130Nm of torque (boosting up to 150Nm) and a peak power output of up to 1300W, it makes traditional full-power systems feel positively mild by comparison and has caused quite a stir among media and riders alike, shaking up the premium eMTB category.
Ride Impressions: Climbing
A single weekend isn't nearly enough for a long-term review, but we managed a solid ride for Andy and three distinct loops for Neil climbing and descending over 4,000 meters of vertical terrain between them. That gave us plenty of trail time to get a decent impression of the overall ride.
On the climbs, with both Neil and Andy coming from bikes utilizing the Bosch Gen 5 CX motor, the DJI Avinox drive unit stood out as an entirely different beast. There is simply a staggering amount of power on tap. Even "Auto" mode (the self-adjusting setting) feels incredibly powerful and supportive.
The long local forest road climbs using the stock settings require minimal physical effort from the rider, and the higher-output modes feel more like a private uplift day than a traditional E-bike ride. Push hard into the pedals on a steep section and the acceleration is ferocious.
Despite the raw grunt, power management is deceptively easy. The motor responds intuitively, smoothly, and near instantly to changes in rider input. Rear wheel traction is easy to modulate, and there are no awkward power surges or lags in delivery. It’s very impressive, though both Neil and Andy agreed they would likely use the Avinox app to detune the motor for daily riding, as neither felt they needed the amount of power offered by the stock settings.
There is a compromise to having access to all that power however and that’s that the Avinox M2S does seem to get less range out of a given battery size than a Bosch CX motor (even when ridden in the lower power modes), by somewhere in the region of 15%. At 74kg, Neil was managing around 1200m on a 600W battery using mostly Auto mode.
As far as the chassis itself goes, the Dreadnought E climbs very well. The riding position is upright rather than racy, and puts the rider in a comfortable position from which to sit and spin. The longer rear-center keeps the front wheel firmly planted on steep pitches, and the idler placement is well-optimized to keep the suspension active under load.
Cranking up the rough, rugged upper moor of the Golfie, the bike ironed out corrugated, rocky sections impressively well with minimal pedal kickback and plenty of rear-tire grip. Like the Druid E before it, the Dreadnought again ranks as one of the most capable and composed climbing platforms we’ve tested.
Ride Impressions: Descending
On the descents, the Dreadnought E ultimately turned out to be exactly the gravity-focused bike we had anticipated and hoped for, but it did take us a couple of rides to get it there.
Our test bike was the premium, RockShox-equipped T1 build, which pairs the new Linear XL Zeb fork with a Vivid Coil rear shock. We already know the updated Zeb platform well, with Neil running one on his personal bike and getting on very well with it. Forbidden’s setup guide for the fork matched his personal settings almost perfectly, so we followed their chart for the rear spring rate too, opting for the firmer of the two options recommended for his weight (a 350lb spring) for our first ride.
At that 350lb spring rate, the rear suspension was impressively supple off the top. It completely erased small trail chatter and generated plenty of grip on steep, slow-speed tech. However, while he didn't have any major issues with bottom out, the shock was pushing through a lot of its travel a lot of the time. The large chassis movements made the Dreadnought feel slightly unpredictable through deep compressions and bigger impacts, causing the head angle and weight distribution to shift back and forth despite winding on extra compression damping. Ride one ended with some concerned faces; back to the drawing board.
Happily the solution turned out to be as simple as moving up a spring rate. With a 400lb spring installed, the excessive movement disappeared and we were able to get a proper impression of the capabilities of the bike. The ultra plush small bump performance reduced, but in its place came a supportive and apparently almost completely unflappable chassis.
The Dreadnought is a stiff and solid feeling frame and the angles lend themselves ideally to the steeper trails of the Tweed Valley. There’s a steep set of chutes and step drops in the second half of a classic local trail (3G for those who know the area) and in terrain like this the bike is exceptional. The tall front end makes everything feel less steep, encouraging the rider to press on and charge into each section knowing the bike will keep its nose up and just blast though. It’s exceptionally planted and stable at speed, just devouring bigger bumps and calming fast sections - it’ll need braver riders then Neil and Andy to find its limits in fast and rough terrain as they both found themselves reaching for the brake levers while the bike still had more to give.
As you might expect from a long travel high pivot bike, performance off the brakes through square edges and lumps is especially good with the suspension muting out roughness, helping the bike to carry speed and transmitting minimal disruption back to the rider. Slower speed technical sections and steep corners are also handled well with the bike happy enough to squeeze through tight chicanes. When scrubbing speed the high pivot delivers a little more brake squat than some designs, with the Dreadnought sitting down into its rear travel and really digging the back tire into the ground when hard on the rear brake. That action also helps stop the bike pitching forward under braking, though you do lose some shock sensitivity under braking compared to the most active designs.
Picking up over trail gaps is perfectly possible, especially if there is a root or small bump to help initiate the hop from. Without a trail feature to use, unweighting the Dreadnought requires more effort compared to a low pivot bike, it’ll still do it, but there’s not the same eagerness to accelerate from a pump, or leave the ground that the best regular bikes exhibit. That’s perhaps always going to be the case on a bike that feels as planted as this one does the rest of the time.
The Verdict
Overall, the Dreanought E is an impressive ride and if you’re looking for a super capable DH E-Bike it’s almost in a category of its own right now with a real trophy truck feel at speed. It's not quite as snappy as the best low pivot bikes of similar travel, but it is fast, confidence inspiring, takes big hits extremely well and for a bike to push your personal limits on you couldn't do much better. The Avinox motor too deserves its place as one of the benchmark systems and for a rider who wants their E-Bike to be essentially a portable uplift, nothing can rival the M2S motor right now when it comes to levels of power and support.
Does the Dreadnought sound like it might be your next bike? We’ve a handful more still free to reserve for the year ahead, so drop the shop a line if you want to get your name on one.
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