Hello Marc,

I’ve finally finished up my testing of the shock you sent me for my 04 GSXR 750. The following is a complete report.

Upon opening the box, the first thing I noticed is the Elka shock is beautiful, a work of art. I studied it for awhile before I put it back in the box while I awaited my tire order, because I try to setup my bike with approximately 15-40 laps on the tires as that’s about the extent that I run them under racing conditions, and the tires on my bike had gone 100 laps already during a school I was teaching.

My tire order arrived May 3rd, and our race weekend started with Friday practice. I removed the Penske triple clicker and set the Elka to the same length (335mm) and installed the new shock. I checked the sag, and it was 3/4 inch out of the box, perfect starting point. I suited up and went out for a session. Honestly, I was so rusty, I just used the session to get myself up to speed and check for any immediate differences between the shocks. I found nothing strange and it felt really good along our bumpiest section, a medium speed curved straight that goes from 2nd gear to 3rd and back to 2nd, all while on the side of the tire.

When I came in I decided it was close enough to put some fresh tires on and really test. Unfortunately, my job as track owner/promoter took over and I wasn’t able to make it back on track on Friday. Saturday we had winds of 45mph sustained with 60mph gusts, so I opted not to ride practice.

Sunday morning I had to skip practice to do my promoter duties. I had to announce the first 4 races and then suited up for race # 6, Heavyweight Superbike. After a warm up lap, armed with a brand new set of Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa’s I had not ridden on or tested, I took the line for the race. Third place into turn 1 and into 2nd by turn 3. Leading the race was Mike Shreve, 3 time ASMA #1 plate holder and current AMA Pro. I was able to stick right on Mike’s tail and for the first time I was able to hold it wide open down our bumpiest section. My best lap time ever, a 1:09.21 happened on lap 3. I finished the race in 2nd place and quite happy with the first real test.

In the pits during the lunch break, I added a click of low-speed compression to the shock to help with too much weight transfer out of the slow bus stop and waited for the Formula Arroyo/Unlimited GP race.

Another mediocre start put me into turn 1 in second place, again behind Mike Shreve. I was able to stick to his tail once again, and we pulled a small gap on AMA Superstock regular and 2006 ASMA #1 plate holder Ivan Garza. Shreve almost highsided right in front of me and that allowed Garza to catch back up and the three of us circulated in the high 1:08 range. I was having a slight problem running wide in the carousel, the fastest turn at ASR that leads onto the long back straight. A bit past halfway, I was getting tired and starting to make mistakes so I waived Garza by and cruised home 3rd. On lap 4 I turned another personal best lap, 1:08.81. The lap record is 1:08.60. If only I had done a little more testing before the race I believe I could have broken the record. But, for only adding one click on slow-speed compression from a shock, out of the box… it performed awesome!

This past weekend was a 2 day trackday and I resolved to finish testing. I went out for 10 laps to get a feel from the bike and get myself up to speed. I then proceeded to adjust the shock a little bit each session, only to keep going back to the same settings. The only thing I really found, was adding one click of preload cured the problem I had running wide in the carousel. I also ended the day with one more click of slow speed compression and two less rebound from the out of the box settings.

All in all, I’m very impressed with the Elka shock. It was closer in setup right from the box than anything I’ve ever used in my life. The valving is spot on for our track and I will be under the current lap record in the clockwise direction, hopefully next month.

Roger Heemsbergen, President
Arroyo Seco Raceway