Forbidden Bikes may be internationally recognised for its line of high pivot bikes (and a couple of others), but the brand is based right in the middle of Vancouver Island’s booming mountain bike scene. Now, Forbidden is doubling down on supporting the Canadian riding community it calls home.
Forbidden is launching the new Own The Podium program offering up to $10,000 in cash and prizing. That payout is based off of results in two of Canada’s most prominent gravity racing series’s. For enduro, the Canadian Enduro League. For downhill, the Dunbar Summer Series and Vancouver Island’s local DH race, the Stevie Smith Memorial DH on Mount Washington.
With WBD continuing to re-work the World Cup series, it looks like local and national events will continue to be more and more important parts of athlete development. It’s great to see a Canadian brand recognise that and invest in domestic racing, not just international factory programs.
Performance based rewards with a twist, and a catch
The program is performance based, but with a twist. It’s not just for the elite or even just main four UCI categories. Forbidden’s offering cash pricing for podium results across expert age categories in both Dunbar and CEL events. There’s prizing for sport-class and short-course categories, too.
For the all-rounders, there’s a specific Forbidden Leaderboard that tallies combined results (top-10) across CEL and Dunbar Summer Series events. If you’re the fastest rider to race both Dh and enduro, you could walk away with a Dreadnought framekit.
The catch is that you have to race on a Forbidden, purchased new in 2025 or 2026. That’s where the “up to” $10,000 comes in. Both of those series are mostly limited to B.C. and a little bit of Alberta for 2026, too. Though with Dunbar hosting several Canada Cup events, there should still be a broader geographical base of riders showing up.
If you’re interested in Forbidden’s new OTP program, registration is open now. You do need to register before being eligible. And, as mentioned, you do need to own a Forbidden. There’s a few on sale now, though, so maybe you could win the cost of a new rig back in prizing if you don’t already have one?