Sea Otter: Formula and The Hive

I took a spin past Formula to see what was new. Some was obvious and some was tucked down out of sight…

First up, there’s a new brake, it doesn’t seem to have a name at the moment, but its big thing is that it has a large, oval piston. Pistons can’t get much bigger or they’ll start fouling the spokes, so the Formula idea is to run a large, oval piston. It’s longer than it is tall and so offers more pad contact, but without the complexity of a four-piston brake.

It seems that many XC racers are running tubular tyres for racing. Formula is playing with a carbon rim for XC racing (which you’ll probably only ever get to ride if you’re a sponsored pro…) but it comes in at 220g!

Formula is also coming out with complete wheels. Scandium rims give a super light weight for these 24 spoke wheels. Front is 585g, rear is 750g to give an all up weight of 1335g. The rear hub has four pawls with a 10° engagement.

Formula is stepping into the murky and difficult world of suspension forks. This is an XC fork which comes in 80/100 and 115mm travel (internally adjustable for length). It’s an air fork and offers lockout and rebound knobs. All up weight is 1350g

The next door booth housed The Hive, who were showing rear Chub freehubs (that actually exist – or nearly exist now…) and they were also showing their new DH crank. It’s based on the same rounded triangle shaped BB axle, only in 30mm steel instead of alloy. The Hive reckons it’s had zero problems with the XC crank and its alloy axle). Weight for the DH crank is due to be similar to Saint, but lighter than Race Face’s Atlas.