Are long-travel single-crown forks fundamentally flawed? Formula certainly thinks so, and the Italian brand’s new Belva dual crown aims to prove it

Rebecca Bland

Price starts from £1,590 and is "not just a rebadged DH fork" from the Italian brand

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Italian brand Formula is back with its signature purple hue on a brand new set of forks: the Belva. Looking set for a day in Morzine, they’re part of an emerging trend for dual-crown enduro forks. They’ve got some pretty stiff competition to be among the best mountain bike forks, and with a price tag of £1,590 they’re into top-of-the-range RockShox Zeb Ultimate and Fox 38 Factory territory here, so they needs to bring big performance to be competitive.
Formula Belva fork

The Belva comes in black or Formula’s signature purple

Formula has chosen to go down this route less-travelled for several reasons. It believes that a dual crown fork with smaller diameter legs offers better suspension performance with reduced seal drag, and an improved flex response while also meeting stiffness requirements appropriate for the intended use. There’s little to no weight penalty either, and rider’s can enjoy greater geometry adjustment. On the flip side, turning circles are limited, stems can’t be slammed, and dual crown look can be an acquired taste compared to single-crown options.
And nowhere is this truer than the e-bike market, where the extra mass and stability of long travel e-bikes put additional demands on the fork. One of the reasons why the original Specialized Turbo Kenevo full-fat e-bike came with a dual-crown RockShox Boxxer a few years ago.
Formula Belva

Formula’s new Belva forks take a different approach with a dual-crown enduro set-up that suits heavy-hitting e-bikes

Formula Belva need to know:

  • Dual-crown enduro fork
  • 2,370g in weight
  • Price from £1,590
  • 170/180mm of travel
  • Designed for 29in wheels
Formula Belva

The forks come with 170/180mm travel and 35mm stanchions

Formula also says that by using a dual-crown design, you avoid flex at the crown-steerer-unit (CSU), and any creaking that may come with it, and retain the stiffness around the head tube. Rather than going to 38mm upper tubes, the Belva features 35mm stanchions, a 43mm offset, a tapered steerer, a lockout lever, and a 15mm axle. It also uses Formula’s Compression Tuning System and their squishy Neopos volume reducer/spring curve modifying technology.

Formula Belva fork

Formula’s Belva is aimed at heavy-hitting e-bike riders

The Compression Tuning System aims to make customising the suspension characteristics easy to do at home. There are eight different damping tunes, all of which can be installed by replacing the plug-in base valve, rather than taking the whole fork apart.

Formula Belva

You get plenty of adjustability with the Belva, thanks to Formula’s Neopos and Compression Tuning System technologies

The Neopos technology allows riders to tune the end stroke, and ‘calm’ the mid-stroke, and look and act like volume spacers.

Do you actually need something so burly for enduro riding? The answer, as always, is rider dependent, and there’s no doubt that dual crowns bring both advantages and disadvantages to the table. But that purple paint is definitely tempting, and, as Formula says, running a dual-crown “brings a sense of occasion to every ride.”

Belva forks features:

  • 170/180mm travel
  • £1,590 price tag
  • Double-butted 35mm stanchions
  • Tapered steerer
  • Designed for 29in wheels
  • Weighs 2,370g
  • Single air spring
  • 15x110mm axle
  • 43mm offset