ELKA SUSPENSION TO LAUNCH NEW MOUNTAIN BIKE SHOCK ABSORBERS AT SEA OTTER CLASSIC

BOUCHERVILLE, QC, CANADA – Elka Sus­pen­sion Inc., an industry-leading man­u­fac­turer of inno­v­a­tive high-performance sus­pen­sion and steer­ing prod­ucts, announced today it will launch a bold new line of moun­tain bike shock absorbers at this year’s Sea Otter Classic.

Elka’s new moun­tain bike line-up has been specif­i­cally designed and engi­neered for down­hill, free-ride and all-mountain rid­ing, aim­ing to pro­vide a bal­anced com­bi­na­tion of plush­ness, ped­al­ing per­for­mance and com­fort for each appli­ca­tion. To achieve this, all Elka shocks will fea­ture custom-tuned damp­ing based on each bike’s design and intended use. This gravity-oriented line-up will con­sist of 4 mod­els with dif­fer­ent adjust­ment options to address cus­tomer rid­ing styles, bicy­cle cat­e­gories and price point objec­tives. The shocks will fea­ture Elka’s intu­itive con­cen­tric dual high/low-speed com­pres­sion adjuster, reser­voir vol­ume and pres­sure adjust to con­trol the pro­gres­siv­ity and also rebound and pre­load adjust­ments. Both hi-tensile alloy and tita­nium springs will be avail­able for all mod­els in a wide range of spring rates. All mod­els will be offered in sev­eral length/stroke com­bi­na­tions – includ­ing the increas­ingly pop­u­lar 10.5” x 3.5” size – so they can be fit­ted on the vast major­ity of bikes, past and present.

Although this will be Elka’s first prod­ucts for the moun­tain bike mar­ket, the com­pany has over a decade of expe­ri­ence engi­neer­ing and custom-building championship-winning sus­pen­sion and steer­ing prod­ucts for pow­er­sports appli­ca­tions such as Motor­cy­cle, ATV and Side-By-Side Vehi­cles. This new moun­tain bike prod­uct line incor­po­rates many of the same inno­v­a­tive sus­pen­sion tech­nolo­gies that have been used to win mul­ti­ple ATV World & National Cham­pi­onships, SCORE Baja Cham­pi­onships, Mini-Motocross Cham­pi­onships and Motor­cy­cle Road Rac­ing Championships.

The last four months have seen some intense test­ing by Elka-equipped race teams in Europe.

Swiss Super­bike Cham­pi­onship
A lead­ing Suzuki team in the Swiss Super­bike Cham­pi­onship tested twice at Valen­cia (Spain) in Decem­ber, and decided to run Elka shocks on both machines after par­al­lel test­ing showed a 1 sec. per lap advan­tage over race dis­tance, through bet­ter cor­ner exits and less tire degra­da­tion over a race dis­tance. Fur­ther test­ing has estab­lished lead rider Marc Wild­isan as the favourite to win the Super­bike crown this year.

British Super­bike Series
In the UK, Team JHS Rac­ing runs the Tri­umph UK Day­tona 675 in the Super­sport class of the BSB Series, rid­den by Alas­tair Fagan and using an Elka shock and steer­ing damp­ener. Dur­ing offi­cial Series test­ing at Pem­brey (Wales), the JHS 675 turned laps within 2 sec. of the offi­cial Ducati 1098R Super­bike with by Tony Rut­ter.  The sea­son starts at Brands Hatch, near Lon­don, on the first week end of April.

French Super­bike Cham­pi­onship
Suzuki France will run three Super­bike in this cham­pi­onship in 2008 under the Junior Team Suzuki France ban­ner, Super­bike win­ners in 2006 and 2007, with return­ing cham­pion Guil­laume Diet­rich in the lead machine. Test ses­sions in Spain and in south­ern France saw the rid­ers beat 2007 times by over 1.5 sec per lap.

The offi­cial Honda France team chose Elka for their offi­cial Super­sport team, as well as for their entry in the Coupe Pirelli team, as part of this Cham­pi­onship.  Rider XXX has beaten the Super­sport lap record in test­ing in Valen­cia as well as at Lede­non in south­ern France. That series start on March 29 and 30, and we will keep you posted on the Team Honda results.

World Endurance Cham­pi­onship
Junior Team Suzuki France will run one GSX-R1000 in the Super­stock class at both French rounds of the WEC, the Le Mans 24 Hours in April, and the Bol d’Or 24 Hours at the Magny-Cours track in Sep­tem­ber. At offi­cial test­ing in late March at the Le Mans cir­cuit, this entry was quick­est in the rain, as well as third over­all, ahead of many Fac­tory Super­bike Teams, in the dry prac­tice sessions.

A Suzuki Qatar Super­stock 1000 K8 will run the com­plete series in 2008. The team prac­ticed at Le Mans, in cold and wet con­di­tions, the first time both Qatari rid­ers encoun­tered such con­di­tions. Lead rider Kenny Foray, the 2007 French Super­sport Cham­pion, was up with the lead­ers, and both Qatari team mates were quick to learn how to adapt to low trac­tion con­di­tions, as they will doubt­less encounter through­out the series.

Marc Can­tin
Direc­tor – Motor­cy­cle Products

First round results for Elka racer – Two wins, two third places!

The sea­son opener for the French Super­bike Cham­pi­onship was held at the Bugatti per­ma­nent cir­cuit at Le Mans France, with rain play­ing a spoiler role through­out the week end.

In the first Super­bike race, two Junior Team Suzuki France GSX-R1000 machines fin­ished on the podium. Emeric Jonchière started from pole posi­tion and dom­i­nated from flag to flag, win­ning his first Super­bike race in this cham­pi­onship. Guil­laume Diet­rich, third after qual­i­fy­ing, ran a steady race to end up on the third step of the podium, while Freddy Foray started 6th and ran a steady race to 8th place at the end after a short off-course excursion.

The sec­ond Super­bike race was tougher for Jonchière, who went from pole to 7th at the flag, while a steady Guil­laume Diet­rich repeated his third place fin­ish from the first race. Freddy Foray also ran a steady race to end up 6th after an unevent­ful race.

The Pirelli Junior 600 Cup saw Anthony Loiseau qual­ify 6th on his Honda France CBR600RR, and fin­ish first over­all after fine tun­ing his sus­pen­sion for the tor­ren­tial rain.

The sec­ond round of the French Cham­pi­onship will be held April 26 and 27 next, in Nogaro.

See you then!