I have noticed lately that several dealers have started really "pushing" Elka shocks. Clearly these are at least somewhat controversial. There are several complaints about them in all forums, yet many reputable companies (like Duncan Racing and others) who used to sell Custom Axis now promote Elka. Most people would clearly agree that Custom Axis is a better shock, so why are so many dealers trying to sell their customers an inferior product?

 

Apparently it isnt as clear as you believe.

When Elka was finding there way through the set up problems and starting to become a real player in the market they had some excelent pricing and were a better value in comparison to axis etc and though the retial prices have increased enough to change that to the consumer I understand there hasnt been as much of an increase on the dealer or distributor end making them more profitable.

When they were priced so well there was a large amount of riders buying the product that were inexperienced in proper suspension set and not completely honest in answering the ever important set up questions. This combined with a couple of problems with MX set ups on a few models caused many of the problems we have heard of.

From my own investigations it seems that Elka didnt have much more problems on a percentage basis than any of the other companies.

I for one have had a set of the LT fronts and rear for about a year+ and except for some fine tuning problems (spring rate and rider adjustment etc) I have zero complaints other than the increase in pricing. I guess they want to sell at or above where axis is for some reason, maybe profit? LOL.

 

All I can say was when we used Elka's on my son's 250X/350X conversion they did a great job and saved his sorry butt on more than a few missguided launches .........no mechanical complaints........we did have them set up for him at a race shop however. And aren't the people who started Elka from Custom Axis originally? Could be sour grapes too. I did hear about a rod seal that was noisy and a few other minor set up problems like was mentioned in the previous post, but anyone who got them dialed in seemed extremely happy with them.

 

I ABSOLUTELY love my elkas, I think a set of good shocks is a better mod than pipes/pipe!! They've also saved me when I case out(which happens ALL the time). I emailed eric@elka a few weeks back and he responded w/ in 45mins. I emailed axis/tcs/ohlins and never got a response[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]. There customer service kicks a$$, I know a handful of guys w/ elkas personnaly and when they put on a couple of extra pounds the shocks got a little soft. Eric hooked them up w/ a stiffer spring FOR FREE!!!!


Mike

 

I just put a set on the front of my zilla man what a differnce, like night and day. I got mine right from ELKA in canada, excelent service they actually offered me a pair of units they used for some testing and rebuilt them and set them up for my weight and riding style theywere like brand new for 200$ less than the new one's. Very good product for the money...


03hp300
88lt500r
92lt250r

 

I had to send mine back once to be resprung and it made a huge difference. I much happier with them now. I don't know about you guys but my only complaint is that the compression setting doesn't seem to make much difference no matter how far I turn it up or down. I've compared them to my buddies PEP shocks and his seem to be better on extremely rough terain and don't let the quad hop around as much. My Elkas on the other hand are much harder to bottom out then his PEPs.

 

BTW I ordered my Elka SSD's the day before the price increase.