Formula Belva Dual Crown Enduro Fork | First Ride Review

‪@FormulaItaly‬ 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 Formula Belva (“Beast” in Italian), and we managed to log a couple of rides on one for this first ride review.
Check out the written first ride review here: theloamwolf.com/2024/04/03/fi...
00:00 - Intro
00:58 - Product Overview
03:15 - Setup And Tuning
05:50 - Ride Impressions
09:18 - Climbing
10:45 - Closing Thoughts
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[@petedog9581]

I still have a 2007 Specialized Enduro with a Fox made E150 fork with a dual crown. I love that lateral stability. I have newer bikes but the suspension was really good for its time.

[@TeamCykelhold]

Manutou dorado pro is pretty heavy, but can be set to 170-200mm travel and has a quite short stack and with a bridge can be easily converted between 29 and 27.5. It's the best fork I have ever tried. USD forks are fantastic, and the dorado is a huge step in the right direction. It feels like moto figued all this out ages ago, and MTB doesn't just take moto tech but has to discover it all over again. Kind of weird when you think about it. This new formula fork might bridge the gap between traditional forks for MTB and dual crown forks, and might open up peoples mind about dual crown forks for enduro. It's simply great to have a dual crown fork this light, it's exactly what we need and if it rides just half as well as the dorado it's a clear winner.

[@captaincrazymofo]

Running a Dorado on my enduro bike too... It's awesome

[@TheLoamWolf]

The Dorado is sweet for its overall comfort and traction, but we've shared some concerns with torsional stiffness in the past for certain riding situations. We'd love to see more Dual Crown forks outside of the DH world for sure.

[@captaincrazymofo]

@@TheLoamWolf I definitely feel like any fork that can be run at world cup speeds is going to survive my basic skills doing pedal laps of my local DH 🤔 is this torsional stiffness you talk of really an issue, or is it just a way of throwing up buzz words to generate interest and content. Would you consider it as an issue at enduro speeds?? Let's say compared to the formula on test here, with it's noodle like appearance??

[@Lancia444]

weight bro....to scale a moto bike forks are about 10kg. USD is phenomenal, I've had older Dorados and have ridden old Mr. Dirt USDs for downhill, but the torsional stiffness was pathetic even with a decent stiffness 20mm billet thru-axle and hub. If mtb suspension wanted to address this, it'd have to be yet another standard to develop "35mm axle clamp" system....weight goes up? E-Bikes might be the only direction this may develop properly....

[@TeamCykelhold]

@@Lancia444 weight of dorado is about 3kg and I don't think the torsional stiffness is an actual problem when riding although I do find it unsettling in the parking lot. How much weight is going from 20mm to 35mm reasticly going to add? 50g? 100g? no problem on a DH rig. The real question is if it actually has the desired effect.

[@jeremybub]

Very interesting, my understanding was most EMTB manufacturers do not recommend dual crown and may void the warranty, what is the target market for formula?

[@JOE-uq8oh]

Great fork, if they can have a dual air or a tri air in here I will start to consider this.

[@Kiwi-in-Wales]

Please test the Intend Edge, it would be great to get your opinion and feedback on this USD fork

[@TheLoamWolf]

We would love to! We'll see what we can do.

[@babenkoff]

@@TheLoamWolfIntend will launch dual crown Enduro fork by the end of April. It will be updated "Infinity". Would be cool if you coould take it for a review.

[@pauls1128]

@@TheLoamWolf , please contact me if you are interested to buy/test a lightly used Intend Edge. 100kg myself, I didn't like the tortional flex.

Stiff enough for heavier riders like me (90Kg) with just 35 stanchions? I am waiting for the final review

[@lilblaster22]

Banshee Prime🎉

[@Anonymous-jx8mv]

Formula and their priceing is rideculous end of 2023 they lounch the new lever for Cura brakes for 90 USD for one lever :DDDD But if i get they charging 90 for lever 2 000 for "whole" fork is normal :D

[@robbwilliams7885]

Wtf, is every Loam Wolf episode electrified?

[@TheLoamWolf]

Not at all. As a media outlet we tend to cover news and releases of products, and as it works out, lots of brands are releasing e-related products. 🤷🏻‍♂️ we had a stretch where 9 of 10 videos released had nothing to do with anything electric about a month ago, but apparently they get missed my non ebike fans and for some reason KZbin wants to suggest non ebike fans exclusively ebike content… weird.

[@jmdrstv]

Loam Wolf-e indeed. My favorite reviews on the web but the shift to lots of e-things is a bummer for me.

[@TheLoamWolf]

Thanks for the feedback, we appreciate people sharing. Perhaps we'll consider an alternative channel to separate content. Not sure if that'd be something you would enjoy or appreciate?

[@jmdrstv]

@@TheLoamWolf IDK…then it seems like you might lose scale and the mojo that goes with it. Looking objectively at the list of recent videos there are still roughly half non e-bike reviews, but I guess it’s kinda like if your favorite steakhouse converted half the menu to vegan. I’d probably still go there and get my steak, it wouldn’t feel the same. I guess my old ass just has to accept these things are what the kids want. Eat my steak and shut up.

[@TheLoamWolf]

Hahaha. Thanks for taking time to look and share perspective… for the record, we think it may be what the older guys want more than the kids on this one! But either way, we love to have fun on two wheels…. And eating good steak. Happy trails and thanks again for the comments

[@leafydialupking1]

Now if only they’d come out with some North America. Distribution and support. I want to try a formula fork badly, but they’ve got a worse presence in North America than basically every other major suspension manufacturer.

[@jacksondaniels8169]

Triples on freeriders/enduro bikes are nothing new. My 2000 Specialized FSR BIGHIT had a Marzocchi Jr. T on it. I still have the bike because it handled so well. Price it right, and I'd be down.

[@Norcaljedi_ea]

2006 called they want their manitou Sherman back….

[@michaelcuddihee6754]

comes in at 1850 € 😮

[@TheLoamWolf]

Slightly more expensive than a Fox 40 for example, but not miles off.

[@michaelcuddihee6754]

@@TheLoamWolf agree but the comparable single crown is about 700 cheaper at high retail. I love triple clamp forks. I would just think they would want to enter the market in a comparable space, not almost 4 x the price of a Fox Factory 38 (that you can get now for half price on sale everywhere). I love the concept. I hope they can get the cost down.

[@worldstallestmidget]

I have rockshox boxxer select with 35mm stanchions for about half the price! 2000 American is steep! Even fox 40 and new boxers are ridiculous at1800 plus! Not knocking the performance jyy u st the pricing!

[@TheLoamWolf]

Definitely not nice on the wallet, we agree! Will be interesting to see if we think it might be worth the price tag following some more tweaking and testing in the long term review.

[@worldstallestmidget]

@@TheLoamWolf definitely looking foreword to a long term review