We consider a type of distance-regular graph $Γ=(X, \mathcal R)$ called a bilinear forms graph. We assume that the diameter $D$ of $Γ$ is at least $3$. Fix adjacent vertices $x,y \in X$. In our first main result, we introduce an equitable partition of $X$ that has $6D-2$ subsets and the following feature: for every subset in the equitable partition, the vertices in the subset are equidistant to $x$ and equidistant to $y$. This equitable partition is called the $(x,y)$-partition of $X$. By definition, the subconstituent algebra $T=T(x)$ is generated by the Bose-Mesner algebra of $Γ$ and the dual Bose-Mesner algebra of $Γ$ with respect to $x$. As we will see, for the $(x,y)$-partition of $X$ the characteristic vectors of the subsets form a basis for a $T$-module $U=U(x,y)$. In our second main result, we decompose $U$ into an orthogonal direct sum of irreducible $T$-modules. This sum has five summands: the primary $T$-module and four irreducible $T$-modules that have endpoint one. We show that every irreducible $T$-module with endpoint one is isomorphic to exactly one of the nonprimary summands.