FORGE - Your Questions Answered
We recently spoke with Scott Decker, Bicycle Design & Product Manager at Pearson, about his process and reflections on creating the Forge, our groundbreaking bike designed to take you Faster. Further.
Inspiration Behind the Forge
The Forge was born out of two key frustrations. Our customers desired a high-performance road bike, but after conducting bike fits, we often had to compromise the bike setup to make it work. Many road bikes are designed with professional race teams in mind, which influences their geometry. We wanted to create a bike focused on our customers' needs first.
The Design Brief
When we embarked on Project Forge, our goal was to create a bike that provided an uncompromised riding position for our diverse customer base. We utilised feedback from our customers who were after a bike that rode and looked like a Performance bike without sacrificing the comfort and compliance of an Endurance bike. It needed to be fast, climb well, handle smoothly on real world roads, and keep the aesthetics and clean lines of a performance bike.
The Outcome
The Forge is a Performance Endurance road bike without compromise. Weighing just 890g in a size medium, it excels in acceleration and climbing. We've stiffened the downtube, bottom bracket, and chainstays for out-of-saddle efforts while maintaining comfort with flattened seatstays and a slimmed top tube.
The bike is fast, featuring aero profiles across the frame alongside an aero seatpost. It offers excellent handling, with a perfect blend of stability and cornering ability, thanks to the short chainstays and head tube angle and fork offset. Full internal routing, hidden mudguard mounts, and multiple bottle cage points provide all round versatility. Despite the tall front end suggested by the figures, we've taken steps to alleviate this visually with a taller fork and crown and an incrementally sloping top tube across sizes..
The Forge is a Performance Endurance road bike designed without compromise, and we believe you'll love riding it. It's available in five sizes, including fringe sizes 1 and 5 to cater to those not usually accommodated by other brands.
Performance Endurance
The Forge's design is informed by our customers requirement for a bike that fits them and they can ride all day without sacrificing the speed of a performance bike. We analysed saddle height versus reach, discovering that for taller riders, reach was not progressively longer. Traditional geometries from major brands, like Tarmac, Madone, and Supersix, often fit the midsection but fall short for shorter and taller riders.
We also identified a need for a broader range of stack heights. Some race bikes max out at 580mm, but our data showed we needed up to 645mm for our largest size—a significant 65mm increase. Additionally, bar drop and setback both rose incrementally with saddle height.
Translating Data into Design
Designing the Forge involved diving deep into geometry. We focused on fit measurements (seat tube length, head tube length, top tube length, stack/reach) and handling measurements (seat angle, head angle, fork rake, chainstay length). Balancing these aspects required extensive testing and iteration.
We began with size 3, then designed sizes 1 and 5 to cover the extremes of our data, followed by sizes 2 and 4 to fit closer to the midpoint. Using CAD software, we refined the geometry, tested alloy frames, and produced carbon mockups and pre-production models to ensure real-world performance.
Faster. Further.
While it may seem like splitting hairs, we believe the Forge creates a new category: "Performance Endurance." This bike can devour miles on long rides and keep you fresh, yet still deliver top-tier performance when you need to sprint or corner like a pro.
Want to learn more about the Forge, including available models and pricing? Click here for more details. You can also speak with our expert team to address any queries. Interested in what others think of the Forge? Check out the reviews here