Forbidden Druid/Dreadnought V2

Anyone have either of these frames?

What are they like to live with?

There’s a whole lot of bearings and pivots going on there in a small area.

Creaky maintenance nightmare or once a year bearing change?

Druid V2 here.

I actually had no intention of buying another Forbidden after the pained ownership of a V1 Dreadnought, which was still possibly the best bike I’ve ridden, but it was an endless creaking mess of a bike which ate bearings for fun.

The Druid, I bought as a second hand frame as it was silly cheap, with a view to punting it on if it turned out to be a dud. I’ve only had it about 3 months, but it’s about 12 months old.

I’ve ridden it quite a lot over that time, in our sh*tty summer & it’s still silent. That includes doing about 50,000 meters of descending in 2 weeks in the Alps, as I ended up preferring to ride it over my other bike.

Im annoyingly impressed with it. I still don’t buy the story that they ride like they have much more travel, but it does feel like a really, really good UK bike which I would be happy to race & ride on anything (it was very good on the Pleney off piste death steeps).

It does now catch thick mud around the lower link, which used to be the issue on the V1 bikes, but on the upper pivot, which could be an issue if a big rock got stuck in there, but that was a specific thick mud kind of day, which I wouldn’t see in the UK – I expect it to be nothing like the issue of the old frames. That would be the same for the V2 Dreadnought I expect as the lower link is almost identical.

In short, thumbs up from me.

Another Druid V2 here.

I’ll tell you all about it after I’ve ridden it. I was sucked in by the overwhelmingly positive reviews and I really wanted something I’ve never tried before. This is my first carbon frame, first high pivot, first short travel (for me) trail bike. I really wanted a black one and this was reduced due to the arrival of the pink version so win/win.

I’m currently in the Alps on my other new bike (not a millionaire just restocking after a burglary). Annoyingly the Pleney is absolutely clapped out!

a local pennines bike shop man said to me a few weeks ago,  on admiring a customers forbidden in his shop

don’t get a forbidden I’m continually changing bearings on that bike after every ride it feels like, get a deviate, larger bearings and covered, not had to change mine in over a year

Thanks for the replies so far.

In true STW style we have a positive, a negative and an i own one but haven’t ridden it answer. :0)

@HobNob

@sharkattack

What size do you have and how tall are you?

Mine is an S4 and I’m 6’2″. The reach at 500mm is  shorter than my 2 previous bikes but I wanted to downsize a little anyway.

I’ve pedalled it around suburban Sheffield and up some mega hills and it’s a nice place to sit and spin.

Can’t wait to get home and take it out somewhere.

6’1” on an S3 29”.

I’m kind of between sizes slightly & it’s a touch shorter than I’m used to, but it has a reasonable amount of stack, so isn’t as small as the numbers quite imply on paper.

I’m not a fan of the super long bikes out there though, so the S4 wasn’t really an option for me.

Thanks both.

Looking at the geo an S4 would be closer to my current frame but they recommend an S3 for me at 6′

Interesting that they come up bigger than the numbers suggest.

Think i’ll book on the Tweed Valley Bikes test day on an S3 but see if I can do a swap with someone on an S4 for a run.