Elka Suspension Group Buy - Get Some!

Good to hear!

No worries. I was a bit ticked when I realized it was taking over 5 weeks to get to you myself.

Group buy still going on? I need a shock for my KLR. Planned to go with the Moab Adventure, but might consider the Elka. Seems to offer more though not sure how that will translate to the feel, if any.

Yes it is.

The KLR has a lot more choices for the shocks and they are less expensive it looks like. Here are the options and MSRP prices. If you know which one you want I can get the group buy price for it.

FYI they are on sale in April so the group buy price is a little better than it will be after April.

Stage 1 w/ Preload & Rebound (no remote resevoir) 46mm MSRP $525
Stage 1 same as above + remote Hyd preload adjuster MSRP $795
Stage 4 w/ Ride height + Preload + Reb + High & low speed compression 46mm MSRP $795
State 4 same as above + remote Hyd preload adjuster MSRP $995

Which are you interested in? Prices above are MSRP and the group buy pricing is about 15 to 20% off. The lower priced shocks aren't discounted as much. I guess its a price point thing.

Replied to PM. Thanks for replying so quick.

Well I gave this thing a real workout in the woods tonight and noticed a few things:

1: it's awesome. Tons more traction uphill and I feel a lot more connected to the ground. I can go a lot faster than before with a lot less effort

2: the spring they picked is good

3: I ran out of rebound damping adjustment - it's too fast even when completely screwed in clockwise. I only noticed this on whoops, but I do notice the same thing 2up on road. Not at all a problem on high speed hits which is a little odd.

I'm going to try running more low speed compression and see if that helps, but I have a feeling it might be going back for an adjustment sometime.

Sounds like a big improvement over the stock 800!. That's really strange about the rebound. Rebound only controls the extension or return stroke. So are you noticing that is coming up too quickly? Rebound is more slow vs. fast return. Comp. is usually described as hard vs soft.

Yes, I was getting catapulted out of the whoop type bumps by the rear - so it rebounds too fast in some situations. Fast bumps or big hits it takes just fine. I mean, I'm going much faster than I used to but there's still a little room for improvement. I need to play around with it again tonight. Mated with the upgraded front end this thing will be absolutely amazing when dialed in. Climbing technical sections was crazy easy because all the rear wheel hop was eliminated.

Sounds odd. Suggest either trying all the way out vs in or maybe give their support line a call. Number is on their website... They have always been helpful when I've called with questions.

1,200 miles on mine so far, S.Ont. to NC on every type of twisty road known. Wet, dry, loving it so far. :

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Sweet! I'm hoping to move my project bike along a bit next week. Maybe I'll have a ride report to post up soon.

Lookie what arrived today!

WOOT!

Nice!! I can't wait to get mine installed. Still sitting in the box it came in. Hope to get to it this weekend.



A couple more orders submitted today. Glad guys are getting in on it.

I hear ya. Mine will be in the box for few weeks while the front-end gets sorted. Gonna be a heckuva transformation when it all comes together!

And home again after a week; 3,400 km of cold, rain, floods, bike repairs (not mine) and a generally excellent time. Pretty sad to ride that far south and have to come back to Canada to get some warmth and sunshine. I hit some high point in Tennessee south of Erwin where it was raining so hard I could barely see, and the temp was 5C (that's 41F for my southern pals). I was shedding so much water, they put those yellow warning signs around me when I stopped in at a McDonalds to warm up

I'm really loving the preload on this thing; it came set exactly for my weight with riding gear and carrying nothing else, at the lowest setting. Carrying enough stuff for a one-week camping trip (I pack light), I only needed to use about 1/3 of the available range. I'd have had the stock shock just about maxed out. (And forget about adjusting for carrying a passenger on that thing). The other improvements are more subtle, but it made for a very enjoyable ride. My only complaint is the hose clamps used to attach the reservoir. They're already starting to rust a bit, and I couldn't find an orientation for them that made me happy. The band is fine, it's just the screw mechanism that's bad, so far. Time to start the hunt for something a bit better. And I'd be interested in hearing what others are doing in that regard.

All in all, well worth the money. Again, thanks to Josh for doing all the work on this!

I just finished up the install on my Dakar last night.

The hose clamps that Elka supplied were WAAAAAY too long. :huh
So I ended up ordering some shorter stainless steel clamps from McMaster-Carr and using those instead. I'll take some pictures after I get home from work. Was too dark when I finished up last night.

Still need to set the preload and take a test ride, but I suspect it'll be a HUGE improvement over the revalved stock shock I had in the bike before.

Just got an email from Elka rep. Apparently I ordered enough shocks that they bumped up the discount a bit on the group buy.

PM me if you are interested in ordering one this month.

Couple of pictures from the install.

The Elka instructions for the Dakar shock tell you to remove the gas tank. Not necessary. You can unbolt the lower subframe bolts, loosen the uppers, and remove the ECU and rear brake reservoir to get the clearance to do this:

Jack it up enough to get to the top bolt of the shock and you're golden.

Here's how the reservoir and preload adjuster mount up. As I mentioned, I bought shorter hose clamps for the reservoir mounting.



I've only done road rides on it so far, hoping to find some dirt on Sunday to test out the shock.

Looks good. I was hoping to get to the install on mine this week but I'm still sorting out the front end of my F650GS'YZ'Dakar build.

I got the YZ250F forks on, got the Highway Dirtbikes hand guards & blinkers installed, got the Leo Vince exhaust installed. The front is almost done so next up is the rear:
Install Elka shock
Pull the ABS unit & new rear brake line + bleed brakes

Nice, Hdb hand guards are the best!

Yep. They are really sweet! I Had to cut down the bars a little to get them to work. The only issue is they hit the upper fairing pretty early. I'm going to rotate the bars a bit to see if that helps.


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