First Look - Formula Selva V

We seem to be experiencing what might be known as a “100 Year Flood” of new product. Which, I’ve been told, is something that happens every few years but totally isn’t related to the burning of fossil fuels.

If I were less honest, I’d claim that missing the embargo date of the new Formula Selva V was an intentional choice, to allow it to have a special place to own the limelight. The truth is that the fork showed up a week or two back and I didn’t know anything about it and by the time I had information in my hand I was already on vacation and there was no way to possibly meet the embargo date. So, here we are, a few days later, talking about the new Formula Selva V. Clearly I haven’t even mounted it yet, so riding impressions are going to have to wait. Here’s what we know.

External Changes

I’m not going to call them obvious changes. But if you hold the new Selva up to the old Selva, there are clearly some new lowers. The big changes (that I can see):

• 180 post mount for your brakes (yay!)
• New arch design that looks a bit more squared off, and accommodate the (included) fender
• “Longer legs”…if that makes sense…the arch is shorter and the legs look to come further up your tire – there’s likely some internal changes that this allows (more bushing offset, for example)
• Beyond that, the fork looks a lot like the old one. Other things that you might find interesting:
• 29er only
• 35mm stanchions
• 160, 170 or 180mm travel available (and internally adjustable, I do believe)
• Guaranteed 10 year parts support
• Lots of included extras – every fork comes with oil (for both damper and lowers), 2 CTS valves, 2 Neopos spacers, a fender, proprietary tools to remove your air cap and CTS valves, and a pump (that I know have 2 of…and can’t make either one work properly)
• Made in Italy and assembled start to finish by one skilled dude/dudette

Internal Changes

Even less obvious are the internal changes. We’ll rely on Formula to fill us in on what is going on inside the fork. The big news is the new dual chamber, self balancing air spring and the new low friction piston design. The damper side is unchanged and it uses the same CTS valve system as outlined in my other article…which I guess I should cut and paste here so you don’t have to follow a link. If you need more than that, please look at the other article.

On the topic of CTS valves, for those new to Formula, the CTS valves are small cartridges that pop into the top of your fork to control your compression damping. Formula offers 8 different valves (9 with the Bryceland specific valve) and through differences in shims and orifices, each provides a unique tune for your fork. While the valves are the same, Formula has updated their literature and naming convention so that things make a bit more sense. You can see the old guide here, and the new guide here

Formula now has the valves split into two handy categories:

Traction Series – for those looking for a spring forward setup with a light touch of low-speed compression damping and varying degrees of high-speed damping.

Support Series – for those looking for a damping forward setup with a heavier touch of low speed compression damping and varying degrees of high speed damping.

Back to the new things for a minute, Formula provided a bunch of detail on the things that they’ve changed, as well as some handy GIF’s to show us how it works.

Concentric Bypass Valve

Previous versions of the Selva came in either single air (with a coil negative spring) or a dual chamber air (with two fill ports), so the self balancing dual air design is new for them. I honestly don’t fully understand what a concentric bypass valve is, but Formula points out that it gets rid of the groove that many other companies use to balance their air chambers. They tout longer bushing life as a result.

This will probably be the biggest change in how the fork feels. I never had a problem with the coil negative spring, but by its very design it does not adjust for air pressure, so is going to act differently depending on how you have the fork set up. This new design should improve how the fork works at lower and higher pressures.

Costs and Stuff

What’s it going to cost you? Well, Formula gives us a price of 1,250 Euros. What that means in other currencies, who knows?

Weight is given at 2,030 grams, at 170mm of travel, with the Q/R lever removed and no fender.

What are my plans?

Honestly? I feel a bit overwhelmed right now. I still don’t feel like I’m totally finished with the current Selva that I have, but I’m going to move my experimentation over to this new one. On the old one I’m at about 18% sag and liking the orange CTS valve. Formula is suggesting a teensy bit more sag, so I’ll probably start out on the new fork in the 18-20% sag range with the same orange CTS valve and the same single Neopos spacer that I’m running right now. We’ll see how that feels and let you know!