Forbidden Druid E Review – Fast From the First Ride

My path to the Forbidden Druid E was a little unusual.

I'd actually ordered the Druid back in November, well before I'd ridden the Velduro Rogue. While I was waiting for the Forbidden to arrive, a Rogue unexpectedly came my way. The wholesaler sent me the bike without a motor, I managed to source one, built the bike up and started riding it.

That turned out to be a very happy accident.

I spent around eight weeks riding the Rogue before the Druid finally arrived, which gave me the opportunity to jump straight from one to the other with a very clear idea of how each bike felt.

They're both full-power eMTBs and both incredibly capable bikes, but after riding them back-to-back, I don't think they're really direct competitors.

The geometry, suspension and overall character are simply too different.

The Rogue immediately impressed me with how plush and planted it was while somehow still being incredibly playful and poppy.

The Druid was different.

It was nimble, playful and immediately very, very fast.

But the more I've ridden it, the more I've realised that's only half the story.

The thing I really love about the Druid is its range. It can make an ordinary blue or green trail genuinely entertaining, then turn around and absolutely shred a technical downhill trail without feeling out of its depth.

That's what makes this bike special to me.

It was fast from the first ride

There wasn't much of an adjustment period with the Druid.

One of the first things I noticed was how easily it changed direction. It turns incredibly well, is easy to move around underneath you and constantly encourages you to interact with the trail.

I also really like the relatively high stack and overall riding position. The geometry is quite different from the Rogue and gives the Druid its own distinctive feel.

Then I started noticing my Strava times.

I was hitting PBs on familiar trails without deliberately trying to. I wasn't going out chasing times – the bike was simply getting through sections incredibly quickly.

The best demonstration of that came on only my second ride on the Druid E, when I raced it at the WA Gravity Enduro State Championships.

I won Men's eBike U40 by a comfortable margin, while also recording a faster overall time than every rider in the eBike Over 40 field.

On my second ride.

I was still getting to know the bike and hadn't finished refining the suspension setup, yet I was immediately comfortable enough on it to race at that pace.

I later raced the Druid at the WAGE Dwellingup State event, finishing second in Men's eBike U40.

Those results reinforced what I'd already been experiencing on my normal rides.

This is an exceptionally fast bike.

Don't be fooled by 150 mm of rear travel

Looking at the Druid on paper can give you the wrong impression of what this bike is capable of.

It has 150 mm of rear travel, and it's easy to look at that number beside some of the bigger enduro eMTBs and assume the Druid is going to be substantially less capable when the terrain gets serious.

Don't be fooled by the number.

The Druid rides like a much bigger bike than 150 mm suggests.

When the terrain gets steep, fast and rough, the rear end has a level of composure that I wouldn't normally associate with those travel numbers. You can push it hard through technical terrain, take bigger hits and carry serious speed without constantly being reminded that you're riding a 150 mm bike.

My race results have given me plenty of confidence in what it's capable of when pushed.

But the clever part isn't simply that the Druid can handle difficult terrain.

It's what happens when the trails aren't difficult.

It makes boring trails fun

This is probably the biggest reason I like the Druid.

Not every ride is down a steep, technical gravity trail.

A lot of the riding most of us actually do involves blue and green trails, linking sections, flatter terrain and trails that don't necessarily require a huge enduro bike.

A bike that's brilliant when you're charging downhill can sometimes feel like overkill everywhere else.

The Druid doesn't.

On easier terrain, the bike is lively enough that you start looking for things to do.

Little trail features become jumps. You start looking for alternate lines. You can pump through sections, change direction quickly and play with things that you might otherwise just ride straight past.

It makes boring trails fun.

Then you can take exactly the same bike onto a proper downhill trail and absolutely shred it.

That's the part I think is difficult to communicate by looking at specifications.

The Druid doesn't feel like a compromise between an easy-trail bike and a gravity bike.

It somehow gives you a lot of what you want from both.

The Druid and Rogue are very different bikes

It's impossible for me to talk about the Druid without mentioning the Velduro Rogue, because I'd spent the previous eight weeks riding it.

But I don't think this is a case of one being better than the other.

The Rogue has one of the best rear ends I've ridden on any bike. It's incredibly plush and planted, has bigger intentions and can absolutely plough through rough terrain – but somehow remains playful and poppy at the same time.

The Druid approaches things differently.

It's easier to change direction and feels more nimble underneath you. It encourages you to move around the trail, find different lines and turn small features into something interesting.

But I don't want to call the Druid simply a trail bike, because I think that undersells it.

Its 150 mm rear end is far more capable than the number suggests, and I've had absolutely no problem racing it hard on gravity enduro terrain.

I'd describe the Druid as the broader all-rounder, although that's almost unfair to the Rogue because the Rogue is already an incredibly capable all-rounder.

The difference is really where their personalities start.

The Rogue feels like a bigger bike that somehow manages to be incredibly playful.

The Druid feels incredibly playful and nimble, but somehow rides like a much bigger bike when you ask it to.

After riding them back-to-back, the difference is immediately obvious.

Getting the rear suspension where I wanted it

My initial setup on the Druid was around 30% rear sag.

The bike was incredibly quick at that setting. It felt supportive and responsive, and given that I won the State Championship with essentially that setup, I certainly can't argue that it didn't work.

But compared with the Rogue, the ride was noticeably firmer.

Initially, I put some of that down to the fundamental differences between the two bikes. The Druid has less rear travel, different geometry and a different idler and suspension arrangement.

After speaking with the Australian distributor, I realised I'd missed an important detail in Forbidden's setup information.

Forbidden provides two different starting points for rear sag: approximately 30% for a firmer setup and 35% for a plusher setup.

So I moved to around 35%.

The difference was substantial.

The rear became noticeably more comfortable through rough terrain while retaining the nimble and playful character I liked about the bike.

Neither setting is necessarily right or wrong.

I've already proven to myself that the firmer 30% setup can work extremely well when racing. For general riding, however, I prefer the additional comfort I've found around 35%.

It's also a good example of just how much the character of the Druid can change through suspension setup.

The 170 mm Fox Podium was amazing – but 160 mm changed the bike

I initially fitted the 170 mm Fox Podium I'd previously been running on the Velduro Rogue.

And the Podium was absolutely amazing.

I rate that fork extremely highly, and its performance on the Druid certainly wasn't a problem.

But then I put the stock 160 mm Fox 36 back on.

That's when I felt like the Druid really came into its own.

The 10 mm reduction in travel might not sound particularly significant, but you're not just changing the amount of suspension available. You're also changing the bike's geometry and front-end balance.

At 160 mm, everything seemed to come together.

The Druid felt more nimble and balanced, and the characteristics I liked about the bike became even more obvious. It was still incredibly capable when things got rough, but it became even more fun everywhere else.

I've really enjoyed the ride feel of the 36.

That's not the same as saying the Fox 36 is a better fork than the Podium.

I don't think I can make that comparison fairly yet because I was simultaneously comparing a 170 mm Podium against a 160 mm Fox 36.

I've now changed the Podium to 160 mm, and I'll put it back on the Druid so I can compare the two forks at equal travel.

For now, though, I'm enjoying the Druid with the 160 mm 36 enough that I'm in no hurry to take it off.

Experimenting with the Vivid Ultimate

Before spending much time on the stock Fox Float X, I fitted a RockShox Vivid Ultimate to the rear of the Druid.

The Vivid is a shock I rate highly, but the particular shock I had available carried a considerably firmer compression tune than the Druid's suspension platform calls for.

It wasn't giving me the rear-end feel I wanted from the bike.

I switched to the stock Fox Float X, which is much better matched to the Druid, and that's what I've continued riding.

I still want to revisit the Vivid.

The plan is to get the compression tune where I want it for the Druid and test it again. Until I've done that, I'm not going to draw a conclusion about Vivid versus Float X because it wouldn't be a meaningful comparison.

Despite having some very high-end suspension available to experiment with, I've ended up really enjoying the Druid surprisingly close to its original suspension configuration.

The more I've changed, the more I've appreciated the original bike

That's probably one of the more interesting things about my time with the Druid so far.

I've experimented with it.

I've ridden it with a 170 mm Fox Podium.

I've gone back to the stock 160 mm Fox 36.

I've fitted a Vivid Ultimate.

I've gone back to the stock Float X.

I've ridden the rear around 30% sag and then moved towards 35%.

And the more I've experimented, the more I've appreciated what Forbidden was trying to achieve with the bike in the first place.

That's not to say I'm finished changing it.

The Podium is now at 160 mm and will be tested again. The Vivid will eventually get the compression tune I want and I'll revisit that as well.

But I don't feel like the Druid needs those parts to make it good.

It's already an exceptionally good bike.

One bike for the trails I actually ride

Ultimately, this is what defines the Forbidden Druid E for me.

It's easy to build a bike around the extremes.

Give an eMTB huge travel, slack geometry and lots of stability and you can make something incredibly capable when the terrain gets steep and rough.

But most rides aren't spent exclusively on terrain like that.

I want a bike that's entertaining on the trails I ride all the time – including the blue and green trails that make up so much of our riding – without wishing I had brought a different bike when I get to something steep, rough or fast.

That's where the Druid excels.

It makes easier trails fun.

It's nimble enough that you want to play with the terrain rather than simply ride through it. It turns easily, changes lines quickly and makes you look for things to jump, pump or pop off.

Then when you get onto a proper downhill trail, the same bike can be ridden seriously hard.

Don't let the 150 mm rear travel convince you otherwise.

Winning the WA Gravity Enduro Men's eBike U40 State Championship on my second ride – while also recording a faster time than the entire Over 40 eBike field – gave me a pretty convincing demonstration of what the Druid can do when pushed.

Finishing second in Men's eBike U40 at the WAGE Dwellingup State event reinforced it.

And since then, I've actually moved the setup towards making the bike more comfortable and versatile.

The race-winning 30% sag setup was fast and firm.

Around 35% is plusher and more comfortable.

The 170 mm Podium was exceptional, but returning the bike to 160 mm made me appreciate its geometry even more.

The Vivid I tried wasn't the right compression tune for the bike, while the stock Float X works extremely well.

I'm still experimenting, and I'll continue updating the setup as I spend more time on the bike.

But the fundamental reason I like the Druid hasn't changed.

It can make a boring trail fun, then turn around and absolutely shred a downhill trail.

For the riding I actually do, that's an incredibly hard combination to beat.

Want to ride a Forbidden Druid E?

At CB Cycles Australind, we don't just sell the Forbidden Druid E – we ride, race, service and set them up.

If you're considering a Druid E, we can help with bike sizing, suspension setup, component selection and getting the bike configured around how and where you actually ride.

Explore the Forbidden Druid E range at CB Cycles.