Almost 10 years ago to the day, we shone the spotlight on Owen Pemberton in a feature titled, “These People are Changing Everything”. The idea behind the feature was simple: showcase key personalities in the mountain bike sphere who were pushing boundaries and defying convention. The rising stars of mountain biking, if you like.
In that article Owen stood shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Manon Carpenter, Sam Needham and Katy Winton. Back then, the straight-talking Englishman was a frame engineer at Norco, Owen pioneering size-specific geometry while establishing a new life for himself in British Columbia, Canada.
Today, Owen is the owner, founder and head engineer at the Forbidden Bike Co. He’s still based in Canada but in addition to designing high-pivot idler bikes with size-specific chainstay lengths, he also has a company to run.
We caught up with Owen when he was back in the UK for the recent launch of the new Druid V2 to talk about all things bike design, suspension and get some insights into what he’s been doing for the last decade.
In the interview that follows, Owen speaks candidly about his early days at Norco and his shift in thinking with regards to suspension design. He also opens up about his fears around high-pivot idler designs being the latest industry darling, and the risk that they could suffer the same fate as Plus-size tyres.
Owen had a lot more to say on multiple topics but we didn’t have enough space to include everything we discussed here, including a deep dive into pedal kickback and the limitations of certain suspension configurations. So if you like this and want to read more, the unabridged version of our conversation with Owen.
