FIRST RIDE REVIEW

FORMULA BELVA SUSPENSION FORK

Words by Robert Johnston  |  Photos by Roo Fowler for Mountain Bike Connection Winter 2024 

Formula has been innovating in the mountain bike world since 1993, when they introduced the first disc brakes to the market. Since 2012 they’ve been making motorbike-inspired suspension products with unique features to cater to the mountain bike market. Following from their successful Selva single crown enduro fork, Formula was looking to increase the hard-hitting capabilities without losing its comfort and climb-friendliness. Their ultimate solution was to avoid increasing stanchion diameter, and instead opt to use a dual crown upper. The result is the Belva (“Beast” in Italian), and we managed to log a couple of rides on one for this first ride review.

About The Formula Belva Fork

FORK CHASSIS | For the Belva, Formula was looking to add stiffness in areas they saw to be beneficial for hard-charging mountain bike and eMTB riders without reducing comfort and traction on the front end. Instead of increasing stanchion diameter, they used the same 35mm stanchions and lower legs from their Selva single crown fork, but produced new stanchions and lightweight upper crowns to deliver a dual crown fork designed specifically for enduro and aggressive electric mountain biking. Their goals were to improve steering precision and alleviate creaking crown issues, both solved via the dual-crown approach.

The result is a 35mm stanchion, dual crown fork designed for a 29” wheel that tips the scales at a claimed 2,370g (5.2lbs). There’s a tapered steerer tube and a 15mm axle to ensure compatibility with most enduro and eMTBs. Travel offerings are limited to 170mm or 180mm, with accompanying axle-to-crown heights of 580mm or 590mm. This will let you run up to 10mm extra travel than a 38mm stanchion single crown fork, without modifying the static geometry. There is ±5mm adjustment either way by shifting the crowns up and down the stanchions, offering unique tuning potential compared with a single crown fork.

The custom-forged crowns have direct mount stem mounting points to offer the most efficient connection to the steering. The lowers carry over from the Selva, with a Hexagon Design to offer increased structural rigidity with minimal increase to the weight. Formula’s ILS (Integrated Locking System) is used on the axle. The quick release lever of the ILS can be removed to shave weight if desired.

DAMPER | Formula uses the same time-tested damper in the Belva as their Selva single crown. This is a closed-cartridge damper offering external tuning of Rebound and Compression as well as featuring a lockout lever. The end of the damper shaft is secured with a rounded joint and bushing, helping to deal with lateral forces and keep the damper shaft sliding smoothly inside the fork.

What sets Formula’s damper apart from the competition is their Compression Tuning System (CTS). The overall damping curve can be adjusted completely without having to fully disassemble the fork. Instead, drop-in CTS valves can be swapped in just five minutes with the fork still on the bike, letting you get a “tuning center experience” on the trailside. Eight CTS valve options are available, letting each rider quickly obtain their preference of support and comfort for low, mid and high speed compression events. The fork comes with the “standard” Gold CTS valve fitted, and there’s a Blue valve included in the box that offers increased support deeper in the stroke. The six other CTS valves are available aftermarket, including a highly supportive eBike Racing-specific valve.

AIR SPRING | The Formula Belva uses a positive air spring with three coils of different spring rates used for the negative spring. This negative spring is not tunable, so there will be a variation in static ride height depending on the pressure in the positive air chamber. The air shaft is connected to the fork with a ball joint to reduce friction under lateral loads.

The positive air chamber volume can be tuned with optional Neopos volume reducing inserts. These are not solid like conventional volume reducers, but made from a tuned compressible material that impacts the air spring curve in a different way. As the air spring pressure increases, the volume of the Neopos spacer reduces, thereby providing a more linear ramp-up of support. This avoids a “wall” of support from creating a spike of force deep in the travel, which can occur with a fork with many standard volume reducers fitted. There are also claimed velocity-dependent benefits that you can learn more about here.

OPTIONS AND PRICING | Formula is offering the Belva in a choice of 170mm travel or 180mm travel in Black or “Ultraviolet” colors, with a retail price of €1850 / £1590 (USA TBC).

THE DIRT

I was able to log two solid rides on a Formula Belva fitted to the front of a Propain Ekano 2 CF eMTB at the Mountain Bike Connection Winter 2024 event in Massa Marittima, Italy. With the help of the Formula team on hand at the event, I was able to achieve a solid baseline setup quickly. I then hit some relatively familiar trails to experiment with the setup and try to get a quick first impression of the character and capabilities of this exciting new enduro fork offering.

SETUP | Formula provides a simple air pressure chart on the fork to suggest a starting point for the setup. Sadly for me, this chart tops out at 90kg/198LBS, for which they recommend 80psi. The maximum recommended air pressure is 85psi, which Formula said was to do with the properties of their NeoPos air volume reducers and Coil negative air spring. Above 85psi, the NeoPos will begin to behave more like standard volume reducers, and the Coil negative springs will be heavily preloaded. Initially I set the Belva to the “maximum” 85psi for my 98kg (220lbs) weight. However, following the first lap I increased this to 88psi to obtain a little more support from the air spring. Clearly, this is not a fork designed to be optimal for a rider of my weight, but it still felt reasonable from the get-go.

The damper came set up with their standard Gold CTS valve, as it would from the factory. This is the CTS Valve that according to Formula most closely mimics a “typical” damper tune from other manufacturers. Sadly Formula did not yet have their other CTS valve options finalized and so weren’t able to provide them for me to test. With the standard Gold CTS, I wasn’t quite left with the support in the low-mid speed that I desired. I tried ramping up the compression adjuster, but it still left the fork a little keen to use its travel when on the brakes or in the first point of tip-in to a turn. I’m looking forward to getting a Belva in for the longer term to play with the CTS and NeoPos systems to obtain an optimized setup. The inability to independently tune low and high speed compression relies on the CTS valves to deliver the riding characteristics each rider desires. This made it tricky for me, but not necessarily a dealbreaker for consumers who will have the CTS tuning available to them.

I began with the stanchions pulled all the way through the crowns, giving the longest possible Axle-To-Crown length of around 605mm. Following the first ride I found the overall ride height was a little too high, so dropped them down 10mm, giving an Axle-To-Crown of 595mm, matching a RockShox Zeb in 180mm travel.

CLIMBING | On electric mountain bikes, uphill performance is every bit as important as the downhills. You’re likely to find yourself trying to ascend more technical climbs, often requiring a lot of steering input. Because of this, I had questions over the impact of the steering lock on the dual crown fork, and whether the allowable turning radius would be sufficient.

Monte Arsenti trail area – where I logged my initial test miles on the Belva – has an appropriately named climb called Spaghetti trail. This climb is packed full of tight switchbacks that have had me dabbing on some bikes in the past, so the Formula Belva dual crown had its work cut out. On the first time up, I had two instances where I failed to set up for the uphill turns properly and so ended up unable to turn tight enough. Following a small adjustment period, I was able to clean this climb without issue. It’s about as tight as uphills go, at least in terms of purpose built climb trails, so I’d suggest it’s not going to be an issue for most riders.

Other than the steering lock, there’s little to set apart the Belva from a single crown fork on the way up. On the eBike I had no desire to flick on the lockout lever, so can’t comment on its effectiveness, but I’ll likely be fitting my Belva to a human-powered enduro bike where I can foresee it coming in handy.

DESCENDING | I hadn’t spent any time on a Formula fork prior to this test. I’d always been curious as to their performance, and a fan of their tinker-friendly approach to their products. My first Formula suspension experience being a dual crown had me filled with excitement, and very interested to get lapping to figure out the performance on offer. Dual crown forks made a lot of sense in my eyes for a hard-charging eBike, and there’s few better sights in mountain biking than a cockpit with a big upper crown and direct mount stem.

As mentioned in the Setup portion above, I was unable to get the Belva set up to my ideal specifications during this first ride review. Combine this with the test trails – which were slick, and aren’t exactly the most demanding on a long travel fork on the best of days – and I’m unable to comment exactly where the capabilities top out. What I can say with absolute certainty is that the Formula Belva did not limit confidence out of the gate. With a setup that was the best we could do given the available compression valving, I was provided with a smooth and traction-rich front end. I wished for a little more support at times, especially on the flatter portions of terrain where I was trying to pump as hard as possible for speed. Even with the compression dial maxed out, I was unable to obtain the support I desired on less extreme fork movements.

Throughout testing, I was actively seeking out some more extreme fork movements to put the end of stroke performance to the test. From the hardest compressions I could find to a ski jump and ladder drop, I never managed to hit the end of the travel or produce any sensation of harshness through the bars. Ultimately, I was never able to unsettle the Belva or feel like I’d really approached its limits, as hard as I tried.

Chassis rigidity is a contentious topic. Too much torsional flex and your steering inputs risk a reduction in control; overly stiff forks lead to reduced comfort. Without going back-to-back with their single crown Selva or a competitors’ fork like the Fox 38 or RockShox Zeb, I can’t say with certainty where the Belva ranks. It felt to be fairly middling in terms of overall feedback to the bars and front wheel precision – a nice place to be – but packed the dual crown confidence…even if it’s all in the mind.

The Wolf’s First Impression

Though I was unable to obtain the “perfect” setup on the Formula Belva during my initial rides because of a lack of CTS availability, it provided comfort and confidence that leaves me with no question about it being a good fork. I can’t wait to get one for a long-term review to see if it turns out to be a great fork, so stay tuned for that coming in summer. 

Price: €1850 | £1590 | USA $TBC
Website: Rideformula.com