092 – Building The Forbidden Bike Brand with Redburn Design Founder Alastair Beckett
Todays Guest
Alastair Beckett – Founder of Redburn Design and Co-Founder of Forbidden Bikes
On episode #92 we are chatting with Alastair Beckett about founding the mountain bike design and solutions company Redburn Design and about co-founding and building the very cool new mountain bike brand called Forbidden. Alastair was on the show over a year ago back on episode #36 (listen here) so it was great to get him back on to chat about how things have changed over the last year for him and his young company Redburn Design.
When Alastair was last on the show we chatted about his history with building the Nukeproof brand and his work with Chain Reaction Cycles. At this time Alastair had just left Chain Reaction Cycles to start his own venture called Redburn Design and after he shared a social post about it being a year since being on the podcast I had to reach out and get an update about how things had been going and the very exciting launch of the Forbidden Bike Brand. Alastair was super kind to set aside some time and come back on the show to share his story of working hard, building brands and co-founding the Forbidden Bike Company.
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Find Out:
- How Redburn Design has being going over the last year
- What exciting projects Alastair has been working on
- How Alastair got involved in building the Forbidden Bike Company
- Why Alastair ended up being the co-founder of the company
- What Alastair and his business partner Owen have been working on to create this new exciting bike brand
- What is involved in creating, designing, building and bringing a product to market
- How Alastair and Owen landed their dream factory to produce the Forbidden frame
- The different elements involved in designing and building a mountain bike frame
- How the guys went about testing the frame with some local riders
- What the initial feedback was like
- How Alastair had to learn about distribution and getting the bike frame into customers hands
- Why Alastair hand picked the retails he wanted to work with and why
- The future plans Alastair and Owen have for Forbidden
- Where you can get your hands on a Forbidden frame
- How to get in contact with Alastair and the Forbidden bike company
Have you seen the Forbidden bike? (check out the links below) What a great looking piece of kit. Now just think about it for a minute. This is the second world class bike that Alastair has designed (that we know of) and got to market. We all know the success of Nukeproof with racers like Sam Hill, Kelan Grant and Elliot Heap and how well they are preforming on that machine. So we shouldn’t be surprised when Alastair, and the initial design of Owen produces this wonderful Forbidden machine. How lucky are we in the small country of Ireland to have not only awesome riders but a bike designer like Alastair. It should be of real encouragement to anybody looking to make a career into the mountain bike industry, that it doesn’t matter where you are from, with hard work and commitment you can make it happen. It is exciting times for mountain biking in Ireland that is for sure.
It was great to get Alastair back on the show and even though I was really planning to chat to him about Redburn Design, once he told me he was the co-founder of Forbidden we quickly found ourselves falling down that rabbit hole. I could talk about founding companies and creating brands for hours, I find it super interesting because everyone of them have a different story. So it was a pleasure to chat with Alastair about his new bike creation and find out how it all came to being. Alastair is super focused and he has to be to deal with the amount of balls he is juggling at the moment. Forbidden isn’t the only brand he has been working on. Alastair has also been helping develop two other exciting brands called Privateer Bikes and Base Bicycles and that is all he could tell us about. He has some exciting projects in the making at the moment but really can’t share any further information on them, so keep an eye on Redburn Design socials for upcoming news. That man really can’t stop working, he makes the rest of us look lazy.
So take an hour out of your day, tune in and find out what it takes to bring a bike brand like Forbidden into your hands. It may just surprise you on how many steps it takes and most of them are mainly uphill.
Enjoy the show!
To Connect Redburn Design & Forbidden Bike Company:
Website: redburndesign.com
Website: forbiddenbike.com
Facebook: redburndesign
Facebook: forbiddenbikecompany
Instagram: redburndesign
Instagram: forbiddenbikecompany
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Thanks so much to Alastair for coming on the show for a second time and sharing his bike building knowledge.
And thank you once again for Listening. You rock!
Join me next week for another MTB TRIBE Podcast show!
Did you enjoy this episode and want to hear more? Check out the episodes below:
