Forbidden Bikes has pulled back the curtain on its latest creation in classic Forbidden fashion – with a beautiful edit, and what it shows is the Reya. The Reya is a short-travel trail bike made for all of it. It’s not a one-trick pony, an XC race bike, or a “downcountry” bike. It’s a mountain bike for mountain biking, and it looks sick.
We might have called it back in January, but we finally have a closer look and confirmation that the new Forbidden will be an all-around ripper of a bike. There aren’t a ton of details out there, but with the bike officially up on the internet, we can only hope that the full details won’t be that far off.
In a teaser video released on YouTube, Forbidden gives us its first look at the Reya, a bike the brand describes as “built from the ground up to be a true modern short-travel trail bike.” Positioned between a cross-country race rig and a full-on trail shredder, the Reya is designed to cover ground efficiently while still rewarding precision and control on technical terrain.
What We Can Tell So Far
Forbidden is quick to point out that this is no XCO bike with extra travel bolted on. It’s a purpose-built machine ready for everything from fast singletrack to multi-day backcountry missions. Don’t call it Downcountry.
Forbidden Bikes
It looks to be a 4-bar Horst Link bike, likely in the 120-130mm travel range. Knowing Forbidden, the Reya will probably have some pretty radical-sized chainstays and geometry that suit someone looking for a short-travel bike that can still throw some gravity-themed punches.
Forbidden even states that the Reya is “designed with proportional geometry and predictable handling.” So, with well-considered geometry and modern handling at the heart of the Reya’s design philosophy, Forbidden says the Reya delivers far more capability than its travel numbers might suggest, and that seems to be true given this short teaser from Rhys Verner.