Forbidden Druid - Avinox Powered

Jdof said:
1,000+ km in and the Podium is still… working. No oil on the stanchions, no air loss, no weird noises — honestly pretty disappointing. Was hoping for at least one dramatic mid-ride failure to spice things up. Instead, it just keeps riding like day one. How boring
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dont jinx it! 🤭
 
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love the discussion regarding the coil. I’m running a bit over 30% sag on my vivid ultimate coil but curious to hear people running less sag like the feel. I’m debating on getting a heavier spring. Thoughts?
 
sickysickybrah said:
sick ride! how tall are you and how is the fit? I'm 5ft 10.5in and wondering if that is the right size for me.
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That is my height, I went S3 and would probably go S2 if doing it again. I stood over an S2 in the shop and thought it felt good, but I had too much geo table cognitive dissonance in my head to trust my gut.

My recommendation would be to ride them both around the block at the very least.

For now, I've gone down to 35mm stem, up to a 770 bar and enough spacers under to try to balance stack and top tube length. The s3 is great for straight shot steep and scary stuff, but it is a boat in twisty stuff.
 
IMG_3545.webp

Not sure if my brain isn’t working but I just cleaned the sled and I noticed these creases on the lower part of the frame. I swear these were not here before but maybe I’ve just never noticed. Anyone else’s bike have this?

IMG_3544.webp


IMG_3543.webp
 
ShapeThings said:
"but I had too much geo table cognitive dissonance in my head to trust my gut. " .
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🤣🤣 love that, I'm not the only one. Perfectly describes what's going on in my head right at the mo.. finally just went with all the voices and not with the dissonance and downsized from the S4 to S3... and now for the long wait and the constant dread of selection regret...shite.. should I have gone with the S4... noooooo my precious..
 
Tokidokijake said:
love the discussion regarding the coil. I’m running a bit over 30% sag on my vivid ultimate coil but curious to hear people running less sag like the feel. I’m debating on getting a heavier spring. Thoughts?
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Not sure if you are referring to my posts on it, but I have a handful mentioning my thoughts on it if you search for them. I'm not sure its particularly popular setup b/c I've not seen many other posts.

I mostly go by experience and feel. I also like to jump a lot so I gravitate to a stiffer setup, that said this is my do-everything-bike, from green natural trails to all day/weekend at dh parks and everything in-between so it has to be comfortable too, I'm about 145-150lbs geared push into the bike a lot with my legs (I don't know if there is a term for riding feet heavy). I'm no expert by any means but I like to read about suspension setups, listen to suspension experts like Jordi at Fox or Steve at Vorsprung. I started searching for something better when my feet would ache after medium to long rides on a MY21 Stumpjumper, tried changing tokens, air pressure, upgrading to bigger air volume shocks, etc. Then finally tried the SDU Coil with 400 and 450 SAR springs, which I thought would be enough for my weight. It definitely made my feet a lot more happy, but was bottoming a lot even with HBO turned to highest, and riding deep in the travel, lots of pedal strikes, etc. Less so on the 450 but still there,. However I didn't really notice much comfort difference between the two, so I thought I would try the Springdex and I knew the first half of the 430-500 wasn't likely for me so I choose the 490-560 spring and found that at 490 it rode much higher in the in the travel, bike felt much better still and almost no bottom outs with HBO on lowest setting (I adjusted rebound/compression to each spring), but my feet still hurt a bit after long rides. That said the bike felt generally way better, more responsive, my jumping got a lot better b/c with such high spring rate I'm getting much back in return, with minimal-ish damping (IE returns fast without bouncing etc), and it didn't seem to affect my grip on chunk, overall everything felt better. Fast foward two bikes and I'm still using very similar setup with high spring rate and least amount of damping I can get away with and loving it and pairs very well with the high-pivot - which also solved most of my feet discomfort issues, I later learned that my high engagement hub on the Stumpy might have been contributing a lot to the comfort issues, either way love the HP an druid kinematics, not going back.
 
ShapeThings said:
That is my height, I went S3 and would probably go S2 if doing it again. I stood over an S2 in the shop and thought it felt good, but I had too much geo table cognitive dissonance in my head to trust my gut.

My recommendation would be to ride them both around the block at the very least.

For now, I've gone down to 35mm stem, up to a 770 bar and enough spacers under to try to balance stack and top tube length. The s3 is great for straight shot steep and scary stuff, but it is a boat in twisty stuff.
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definitely sounds like a bike I would need to ride first. unfortunately there's no opportunity to get on one where i live, so I'll probably end up with an amflow or something i can try out first instead. thanks for the info!
 
elvendawn said:
Not sure if you are referring to my posts on it, but I have a handful mentioning my thoughts on it if you search for them. I'm not sure its particularly popular setup b/c I've not seen many other posts.

I mostly go by experience and feel. I also like to jump a lot so I gravitate to a stiffer setup, that said this is my do-everything-bike, from green natural trails to all day/weekend at dh parks and everything in-between so it has to be comfortable too, I'm about 145-150lbs geared push into the bike a lot with my legs (I don't know if there is a term for riding feet heavy). I'm no expert by any means but I like to read about suspension setups, listen to suspension experts like Jordi at Fox or Steve at Vorsprung. I started searching for something better when my feet would ache after medium to long rides on a MY21 Stumpjumper, tried changing tokens, air pressure, upgrading to bigger air volume shocks, etc. Then finally tried the SDU Coil with 400 and 450 SAR springs, which I thought would be enough for my weight. It definitely made my feet a lot more happy, but was bottoming a lot even with HBO turned to highest, and riding deep in the travel, lots of pedal strikes, etc. Less so on the 450 but still there,. However I didn't really notice much comfort difference between the two, so I thought I would try the Springdex and I knew the first half of the 430-500 wasn't likely for me so I choose the 490-560 spring and found that at 490 it rode much higher in the in the travel, bike felt much better still and almost no bottom outs with HBO on lowest setting (I adjusted rebound/compression to each spring), but my feet still hurt a bit after long rides. That said the bike felt generally way better, more responsive, my jumping got a lot better b/c with such high spring rate I'm getting much back in return, with minimal-ish damping (IE returns fast without bouncing etc), and it didn't seem to affect my grip on chunk, overall everything felt better. Fast foward two bikes and I'm still using very similar setup with high spring rate and least amount of damping I can get away with and loving it and pairs very well with the high-pivot - which also solved most of my feet discomfort issues, I later learned that my high engagement hub on the Stumpy might have been contributing a lot to the comfort issues, either way love the HP an druid kinematics, not going back.
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Super interesting! I was definitely referring to your posts and I’ve been curious about exarky what you are saying regarding the sag mixed into the high pivot aspect. Right now at 30% for me it feels good but also a bit mushy. Not in a way that I’m desperate to change something(it’s my first bike with a coil so I’ve just kinda assumed this is what coils feel like) but I wonder with a heavier spring and less sag if I could get something more akin to what you are referencing. Seems like I’ll just have to experiment and find out!
 
i'm on a 490-560 sprindex ( that is a little progressive in the last part of the travel ). Love that coil. 74kg geared
 
sickysickybrah said:
sick ride! how tall are you and how is the fit? I'm 5ft 10.5in and wondering if that is the right size for me.
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I am 180cm. Fit on the S3 is perfect for me with a slammed 40mm stem, 35mm rise bars.
Normal bike is a Hope HB916 in H2 with the same 467mm reach, but this feels slightly longer, which is no bad thing, and my previous e-bike was an S4 Kenevo SL with 480mm reach. That was a long boi.
 
mhueschen said:
hmm that's interesting, I just checked my CorE and I don't see lateral lines

View attachment 184119

View attachment 184121
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I reached out to my lbs and forbidden about it. Waiting to hear back. Your pics confirm my suspicions that something has changed. I definitely never noticed anything there prior to recently.


Edit: I heard back from Forbidden directly. They said it’s normal variation on the bikes and nothing to be worried about. 💪
 
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Highland Wheels said:
Another day out today getting some good range using eco/auto.

17km, 930m vert and finished the day with 69% 😂
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When do you usually use auto vs economy when riding? Haven't got the Dreadie as yet but interested to see you use eco. From what I've been reading and hearing, most people just leave it in auto.
 
Red Peekay said:
When do you usually use auto vs economy when riding? Haven't got the Dreadie as yet but interested to see you use eco. From what I've been reading and hearing, most people just leave it in auto.
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Because Auto can still be pretty power hungry as the assist ratio changes so much and can be set higher than Eco

My eco mode is set to like 150w and 20nm and low assist range, Basically takes the edge off the weight and drag from it akin to an analogue and is good for when I'm out with folk on non ebikes or my legs are still fresh first thing.

From my experience the assist ratio/range is what really chews through the battery, The dynamic modes help a bit in that Regards if you have the lower end ratio set lower but you can't set it as low on Auto as you can in Eco.


I think anyway 😂 I may be wrong but I have my Eco mode set as low as I can manage physically for the big adventure days out

I feel I use mine quite differently to a lot of folk who remove the limiter and spend all day smashing up fireroads at over 30mph on full power modes 😅
 
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Tokidokijake said:
Super interesting! I was definitely referring to your posts and I’ve been curious about exarky what you are saying regarding the sag mixed into the high pivot aspect. Right now at 30% for me it feels good but also a bit mushy. Not in a way that I’m desperate to change something(it’s my first bike with a coil so I’ve just kinda assumed this is what coils feel like) but I wonder with a heavier spring and less sag if I could get something more akin to what you are referencing. Seems like I’ll just have to experiment and find out!
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I have been using a Marzocchi cr coil while my vivid is being serviced and I'm liking it a lot. 500 610 progressive cane creek spring. First time I have used a coil and the Druid seems to love it. Probably won't go back
 
Rich888 said:
I hate to say it but it rides better than the Druid

View attachment 184379
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My buddy's good friend bought an AmFlow, put a coil Vorsprung Telum shock on it and setup the bike to ride more enduro style trails. Cracked the frame after three rides while riding said trails, and then had AmFlow deny the warranty stating he was riding it on trails it wasn't intended for.....lol
So then he's out the money he paid for the AmFlow and had to buy a Velduro Rogue frame.

I sell AmFlow bikes at our shop, and they're a HARD pass for me....lol

We have a demo bike and I've ridden back to back with my Druid, if the AmFlow feels better I would assume you don't ride aggressive trails or the Druid isn't setup correctly.
 
jbrown15 said:
My buddy's good friend bought an AmFlow, put a coil Vorsprung Telum shock on it and setup the bike to ride more enduro style trails. Cracked the frame after three rides while riding said trails, and then had AmFlow deny the warranty stating he was riding it on trails it wasn't intended for.....lol
So then he's out the money he paid for the AmFlow and had to buy a Velduro Rogue frame.

I sell AmFlow bikes at our shop, and they're a HARD pass for me....lol

We have a demo bike and I've ridden back to back with my Druid, if the AmFlow feels better I would assume you don't ride aggressive trails or the Druid isn't setup correctly.
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Oh man. That is awful. I demo’d last years model and hated it personally. The new versions seems considerably updated from that however
 
Tokidokijake said:
Oh man. That is awful. I demo’d last years model and hated it personally. The new versions seems considerably updated from that however
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I haven't had a chance to ride the new one yet as our booking of Bike's won't be arriving till late June. Was there any geo changes on the new bikes? Haven't really looked at them yet.
 
jbrown15 said:
I haven't had a chance to ride the new one yet as our booking of Bike's won't be arriving till late June. Was there any geo changes on the new bikes? Haven't really looked at them yet.
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Seems like it with all the geo adjustments. I don’t remember if that was an option on the bike I demo’d. Either way it was immediately removed from consideration from me pretty quickly after that ride.
 
It’s nearly 2kg/over 4# lighter (depending on 800wh build), so that will feel better. Lighter battery and suspension components for the Amflow. The MY27 eDruid is probably a smidge lighter due to the suspension spec.

And the new longer chainstay option helps the Amflow as well. Amflow didn’t get the memo on stack height, though.
 
ShapeThings said:
It’s nearly 2kg/over 4# lighter (depending on 800wh build), so that will feel better. Lighter battery and suspension components for the Amflow. The MY27 eDruid is probably a smidge lighter due to the suspension spec.

And the new longer chainstay option helps the Amflow as well. Amflow didn’t get the memo on stack height, though.
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I've never ridden an Amflow bike so take this for what it is... but lets be clear the Amflow frame is just another generic horst link design that's nearly a copy of specialized bikes, having ridden a Stumpjumper for years before HP bike I would never go back to that design, unless I only rode smooth trails. Give me HP, rearward axle path and an extra 4lbs all day long. And I argue +4lbs in this case is a good thing, not a bad thing.
 
ShapeThings said:
It’s nearly 2kg/over 4# lighter (depending on 800wh build), so that will feel better. Lighter battery and suspension components for the Amflow. The MY27 eDruid is probably a smidge lighter due to the suspension spec.

And the new longer chainstay option helps the Amflow as well. Amflow didn’t get the memo on stack height, though.
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the Amflow has higher front than my druid
 
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