Hello to all,

Great news, our Project Rap­tor 700 has hit the cover of Aus­tralian ATV Action! The guys from the mag­a­zine have used our project Rap­tor for the up and com­ing issue, it will be in the news stands for 2 months lead­ing up to Christmas.

You can down­load the cover page of the mag­a­zine and the com­plete arti­cle.

Thank you to all for your con­tri­bu­tions and help in build this awe­some bike!

Shane Hardi­man
Direc­tor of Hardi­man ATV Pty Ltd
www.hardimanatv.com.au

Hi Eric,

I decided to write you to tell you how much I like your sus­pen­sion. I decided to pur­chase it through my sus­pen­sion guy (Roy Bor­ton, Too Tech Rac­ing). I was very impressed in the build qual­ity when I received it and the instal­la­tion was straightforward.

The ride qual­ity was fab­u­lous. Your sus­pen­sion works as good as any­thing I’ve tried. The first real test was over some wash­board gravel road. I was able to actu­ally accel­er­ate. The stock sus­pen­sion would just ham­mer and chat­ter and kick the bike side­ways. I then went to a track­day at our local track in Gimli. This track is only 1.2mi around with 9 turns. It has grad­u­ally got­ten rougher and rougher over the years. Turn 1 has a speed bump right at the apex that you hit at 80mph that you have to see to believe. There are also bumps at the exit that kicked the GS side­ways at 90mph. I did this lap after lap as your sus­pen­sion made this very con­trol­lable. The stock sus­pen­sion would have had me on my head, espe­cially with the cement com­pound tires. There were a lot of 20something young guys on hard core sport bikes won­der­ing who the old guy on the over­sized dirt bike was brak­ing 20 yards deeper going into turn 1 and rid­ing up their tail pipes through the infield. I lapped every­one at least twice dur­ing a ses­sion and we are only allowed to pass on the front straight. Need­less to say guys on GSXR 1000’s R1’s and CBR 1000’s were left shak­ing their heads.

Here is a link to a pho­tog­ra­phers web­site; members.shaw.ca/fogfoc

Look up the June 2007 track­day pho­tos if your inter­ested. I’m rid­ing the blue and sil­ver BMW R1200GS wear­ing red, black and white rac­ing leathers. There are 3 pho­tos, one of which shows the side of my boot drag­ging the ground (see above). That’s a lot of lean angle if you know how high the pegs are on a GS! I wore through the toe slider by the end of the day. I’m already on the gas exit­ing the cor­ner as you can see by the atti­tude of the bike, so there was actu­ally more lean angle at the apex. Pretty good con­sid­er­ing the stock tires. I can only credit your sus­pen­sion for allow­ing me to be able to play this way. You have my per­mis­sion to use these pics in any adver­tis­ing if you wish.

You’re more than wel­come to use my com­ments. I hope to get around to some of the var­i­ous BMW sites to let them know that there is another sus­pen­sion man­u­fac­turer around with great ser­vice and a qual­ity prod­uct. One of the biggest rea­sons I chose your prod­uct was the fact that you made what I wanted when no one else would. I could not see any rea­son to choose any of the oth­ers because they offered a mod­ern shock for the rear and a 1975 tech­nol­ogy shock for the front. Putting on just what I took off seemed rather point­less to me.

In con­clu­sion, your sus­pen­sion has truly allowed the big GS to be the ver­sa­tile bike it was meant to be. From wash­board gravel roads to tour­ing 2 up with gear to ham­mer­ing the sport bike crowd on track days.

Thank you very much!

Bruce W. MacDonald

Sep­tem­ber 28–30, Sears Point Cal­i­for­nia, Infi­neon Raceway

Hi Guys,

We installed the new Elka 3-Way shock mid­way through Fri­day prac­tice. The Elka replaced a stock Yamaha R6 shock rebuilt by GP sus­pen­sion. The bike was fit­ted with Dun­lop 209 GPA medium com­pound (750/3136) tires. Dave Moss (from CRS Tun­ing, an Elka Track­side Sup­port Dealer) did the ini­tial set­tings. Instal­la­tion was unevent­ful though the eye-to-eye length was about 2mm longer than the stock shock with a 5 mil­lime­ter shim.  The Yamaha has an addi­tional set of holes for repo­si­tion­ing the dog-bone link­age so it appears you can change the mount­ing to use a bit more shock length with the longer Elka unit. The extra 2mm shock height did not have an adverse affect.

Right from the start, the new shock was an imme­di­ate improve­ment, par­tic­u­larly notice­able exit­ing turn six (the Carousel). The track falls off con­sid­er­ably here so sta­bil­ity under power is par­tic­u­larly crit­i­cal in this sec­tion.  From the entrance of  the Carousel where the back of the bike com­pletely unloads, into the mid­sec­tion,  through the exit and onto the drag strip, the sus­pen­sion per­formed really well.  Slid­ing the bike exit­ing turn two wasn’t a prob­lem as the back end hooked up smoothly.

The rest of the after­noon was spent turn­ing laps and alter­ing the low-speed com­pres­sion set­ting from plus one to minus four clicks.  The motor­cy­cle per­formed well on all those set­tings but seemed best with the ini­tial com­pres­sion settings.

I had sim­i­lar results on race day and kept the setup iden­ti­cal except for replac­ing the tires with a softer com­pound. (950 front, 3166 rear).  I was a bit quicker on the track and actu­ally improved my best time by two sec­onds dur­ing the 600 Pro­duc­tion race.

Over­all, my first impres­sions are quite pos­i­tive. The shock pro­vided a smooth ride under some of the most demand­ing track con­di­tions we experience.

Dave Munoz, AFM#119

Hello every­one there at Elka!

I have to say that your prod­ucts are awe­some! From mak­ing my shocks to get­ting them to me so fast with such per­fec­tion is totally amazing.

With­out a doubt, hands down they are the best. I placed my order for the fully loaded Elite triple-rate front shocks for my 2005 Honda TRX450R on a Tues­day and I got them on Fri­day the next week. It was awe­some how fast you got them to me. Their qual­ity is unmatched by any other man­u­fac­turer out there. I par­tic­u­larly appre­ci­ated the extra atten­tion when you called, mak­ing sure that the set-up on them was per­fect for what I’m doing and my rid­ing style.

I installed them on my quad today and took them out for a ride. I have to say again you are unmatched by any other man­u­fac­turer out there! Those shocks work like no oth­ers out there although I rode them very hard on Sun­day. I’m totally pleased in every way. I do want to get the rear set-up for my quad too but as of now, I just dont have the cash to get the stuff right now. I hope I can get them soon and I wouldn’t want any other brand of shocks on my quad.

I want to thank you all at Elka; from the CNC peo­ple who did the bod­ies on them to the per­son that called me on the set-up of the shocks to the ship­pers. I thank you all there at Elka! You’re the best, hands down. Noth­ing else will pass the test, Elka Sus­pen­sion is truly the best!

Your faith­ful pro-am rider,

Jamie Bright.

(Note from the Elka staff: We’re always happy to receive such good words. Be aware that Jamie didn’t get any “spe­cial treat­ment”, he expe­ri­enced the same care and atten­tion we give to all our cus­tomers. By the way Jamie, keep us posted on your results and enjoy your ride with the pros!)

We recently received an email from a cus­tomer brows­ing our web­site that was aks­ing a com­mon ques­tion we get asked sev­eral times a week:

Is it more expen­sive to mod­ify exist­ing Elka shock­sto fit a dif­fer­ent quad than buy­ing new shocks?

Here’s Brandon’s email:

Hi,

I used to have a full set of Elka’s with remote reser­voirs on my Honda TRX400EX. I recently bought a 2006 Yamaha Rap­tor 700R. I was won­der­ing if it would be cheaper; to have the shocks I cur­rently own mod­i­fied for the Rap­tor or buy new ones. Also what would be the ball­park price on this service?

Thanks. I love you prod­uct. It trans­forms my bike into a smooth rid­ing Cadillac!

Bran­don Sex­ton
Bridge­port, WV

This sim­ple ques­tion can­not be answered sim­ply as the answer depends on sev­eral factors.

Bran­don is lucky as the TRX400EX and Rap­tor 660 share a very sim­i­lar geom­e­try and same length shocks. He can trans­fer his shocks onto his Rap­tor with­out any prob­lems, thus keep­ing the value of his ini­tial invest­ment. With a ser­vic­ing, our tech­ni­cians are able to alter the valv­ing and spring con­fig­u­ra­tion (if needed) to make the shocks work as new units that would have been built directly for the Raptor.

But it’s not always that sim­ple. When the two vehi­cles don’t have much in com­mon, switch­ing shocks between them can involve high costs and there’s a lot of chances for things to go wrong with­out proper advice. This is also true when you buy used shock absorbers.

Impor­tant fac­tors to con­sider before buy­ing used shock absorbers.

When you’re shop­ping for shock absorbers on a tight bud­get, you might be tempted to look on the used mar­ket. While this seems to be a cheaper alter­na­tive, you need to take into account some impor­tant fac­tors before mak­ing a final buy­ing deci­sion. These fac­tors might affect the per­for­mance and also the total price you will have to pay.

All Elka Sus­pen­sion shock absorbers are custom-built for the orig­i­nal customer’s weight, vehi­cle model and spe­cific rid­ing type, all of which are prob­a­bly dif­fer­ent than yours. While the shocks may fit on your vehi­cle, they might cause dam­age to it or even worse, cause seri­ous injuries to the rider if any of the above details vary from the orig­i­nal customer.

To make sure that the Elka shocks you intent to buy are com­pat­i­ble with your vehi­cle and will offer the per­for­mance and com­fort you expect, always call Elka Sus­pen­sion before buy­ing used shocks. Our tech­ni­cians will be able to con­firm, with the shock’s ser­ial num­ber, if you can or can­not ride them safely.

Most of the times, a sim­ple and afford­able ser­vice work can make used Elka shocks per­form like brand new units, specif­i­cally tuned for your weight, vehi­cle model and rid­ing type. It will also ensure that you will get the max­i­mum per­for­mance and com­fort from your pur­chase for a longer period of time.

Call us now at 1–800-557‑0552 before buy­ing used Elka shock absorbers.

Mon­treal, QC (10/1/2007) — Yamaha motor Canada’s Richard Pelchat was able to claim his first ever podium at the 30th Mon­treal Super­cross. The excit­ing race took place at the Olympic Sta­dium in Mon­treal in front of 50,000 cheer­ing fans. The Mon­treal super­cross fea­tures SX rac­ing, ATV, Autocross and freestyle. Over the past few years, ATV stole the show in Mon­treal with great rac­ing. The ATV track fea­ture a mix of the super­cross track and autocross track, the per­fect mix for a both fast and tech­ni­cal track.

Always plagued with bad luck at events, Richard Pelchat came to the event very relaxed: “…this year I am ready for any­thing, I believe I can make up for any­thing. We will have a lot of fun.” Dur­ing the Fri­day and Sat­ur­day prac­tice, Richard rode smooth, try­ing lines and rid­ing in traf­fic to get a good feel of the track rather that pound­ing fast laps. Richard recorded the fastest lap time of the four prac­tice ses­sions which also serve as qual­i­fiers for the night show.

The first ATV race of the evening show is a very short 5 laps race that deter­mine gate pick for the main event. Jas­min Plante got holeshot for the race with Richard hot on his back. Richard rode smart while pres­sur­ing Plante and set­tled for sec­ond. “I played it safe…I know were I could make a pass…” said a very con­fi­dent Richard after the race.

The stage was set for 10 laps the main event. Once again, Jas­min got the holeshot with Greg Gee and Richard in sec­ond and third. Richard was able to get the inside on Greg Gee in the next cor­ner and started putting pres­sure on Jas­min. At this time the Sta­dium almost exposed as the 50,000 fans cheered on there two favourite rid­ers. Just before the fin­ish line there was sec­tion with a super­cross triple, a mis­take there proved to be costly. The triple took out about 6 or 7 rid­ers, 2 with bro­ken legs. On the first lap, Jas­min cased the triple hard and pulled off in pain with a badly hurt­ing knee. Richard was now lead­ing the race with Greg Gee in sec­ond and Cody Miller in third. Richard started to pull off on his YFZ 450, pickin up about a sec­ond a lap on the bat­tling duo. Just before the mid race, Richard had about a 5 sec­ond lead and appeared well on my way to the win. Then dis­as­ter struck, the Mon­treal super­cross would bite Richard once again: “I came a bit short on the same triple and got bucked off the seat and into the ground. I remounted in 5 fifth”. With his clutch lever down, Richard charged pass US rid­ers Casey Mar­tin and Aaron Mayes to be in third place. While he was catch­ing on Greg Gee, Richard crossed the line in third.

Here what a dis­ap­pointed Richard said after the race:
“I feel bad for throw­ing the win away like that…but it is racing…I was really fast and smooth and my Yamaha was work­ing great but I made one lit­tle mistake…I finally got a podium here, it has a bit­ter­sweet taste but I got it…’’

Thanks to all my spon­sors:
Yamaha motor Canada, Groupe Vert­dure, RP Evo­lu­tion, ELKA sus­pen­sion, Toy­ota Canada, FXR, ITP, DASA, Hin­dle, Web Cams, Pow­er­madd, Hipertech lubri­cants, Team axle, JE Pis­tons, K&N, AAB, Stream­lines brakes, Polisport, Fuel Cus­toms, Sixsixone, Sun­line, Scott USA, Bell, Fal­i­con, AC rac­ing, Mini-moteur RG.

Click here to down­load a PDF of the article.