2026 Forbidden Heathen Framekit

Forbidden Heathen Titanium Frameset – 2026

The Forbidden Heathen is a slack, aggressive titanium hardtail frameset built to be ridden hard and kept for a lifetime. This is Forbidden Bike Company stepping away from carbon and the high-pivot for the first time — a raw titanium frame with genuinely progressive trail geometry, a 64° head angle, and Forbidden’s proportional geometry philosophy applied to a hardtail. It’s a bike for riders who want the directness, durability, and mechanical simplicity of a metal hardtail without giving up modern capability on rowdy terrain.

At outset.bike, we stock frames we genuinely believe in. The Heathen is one of the most honest bikes Forbidden has ever made — a titanium frameset that shrugs off abuse, ages beautifully in raw metal, and rewards a rider who wants to feel the trail rather than filter it out.

TITANIUM CONSTRUCTION

The Heathen is built from titanium — a material chosen for its almost indestructible fatigue life, its natural compliance, and the fact that it will outlast almost anything else you bolt to it. Titanium doesn’t need paint, so the Heathen ships in a raw finish that resists corrosion, hides trail rash, and only looks better with age. Where a carbon frame is engineered to a warranty and an alloy frame is engineered to a price, a titanium hardtail like the Heathen is engineered to be handed down. This is deliberate mechanical minimalism: fewer moving parts, nothing to service in the rear end, and a frame that simply keeps going.

PROPORTIONAL GEOMETRY & PROPORTIONATE CHAINSTAYS

Forbidden built its reputation on suspension bikes that handle identically across every size, and the Heathen brings that same thinking to a hardtail. Rather than bolting the same rear end onto every frame, the Heathen scales its rear-centre (chainstay) length with each size — from 399mm on the smallest frame out to 441mm on the largest, growing roughly 14mm per size. The result is a consistent front-centre to rear-centre balance across the range, so an S1 rider and an S4 rider get the same planted, predictable weight distribution and the same handling character. Too many hardtails put every rider on the same short stays; the Heathen makes sure the bike is proportioned to you, not to the size that was cheapest to tool.

BUILT AROUND A 130MM FORK — MX AND 29 WHEEL OPTIONS

The Heathen is designed around a 130mm fork, with a slack 64° head angle and a 76° seat angle that keep it composed pointing down and efficient grinding up. There’s room to go bigger — the frame accepts forks up to 562mm axle-to-crown, the equivalent of a 150mm RockShox Lyrik — so you can tune the front end to how aggressively you ride. Wheel format is size-specific: the smaller S1 and S2 frames run an MX (mullet) setup with a 29in front and 27.5in rear for tighter, more manoeuvrable handling on shorter riders, while the larger S3 and S4 frames run full 29in wheels front and rear. Tyre clearance runs up to 2.5in so you can fit the aggressive rubber this frame is built for.

FRAMESET DETAILS & STANDARDS

Everything about the Heathen is chosen to keep it simple to build, live with, and repair anywhere in the world. Cable routing is fully external — no fishing lines through the frame, no proprietary headset ports, just quick swaps and easy maintenance. The rear end uses a 12x148mm Boost axle with standard dropouts and a UDH (Universal Derailleur Hanger), so replacements are available at any bike shop and the frame is ready for SRAM Transmission if you want it. The rear brake is flat-mount with a 180mm post-mount adapter included. The frame runs a 73mm BSA threaded bottom bracket and a 44mm ZS headset standard, takes a 31.6mm dropper post through an uninterrupted seat tube for maximum insertion, and carries mounts for a 750ml+ bottle on the down tube plus accessory mounts under the top tube for a tool or strap. It’s a frame built to be loaded up for the backcountry as easily as it is stripped back for spicy XC loops.

WHY A HARDTAIL — AND WHY THIS ONE

A hardtail teaches you to ride better and asks almost nothing in return. There’s no rear shock to service, no linkage bearings to replace, no pivots to creak — just a frame, a fork, and you. The Heathen takes that simplicity and pairs it with the geometry of a modern aggressive trail bike, so it’s genuinely capable when the trail gets rough rather than being a compromise you tolerate. Add a titanium frame that will outlive several drivetrains, and the Heathen becomes the one bike you keep while everything around it gets replaced. If you want a do-everything bike for New Zealand trails — from after-work laps to multi-day backcountry missions — this is it.

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