They were here when I came home. Took about 30 min to install. Lowered the 700 by 1 1/2 inches. There are some before and after shots on the 700 in my photos.

 

hello nice bike and congrats on elkas but I have one question for ya. Why do elkas lower the quad?
I dont have any aftermarket shocks on so im no sure why the would do that. Did you order them that way?

 

There called a no pre-load shocks. It can lower your atv up to 3". By doing this, it makes your atv lower, thus more stabble in corners. You also gain wheel travel. My stock shocks were 9.1" in the front, and 7.9 in the rear. With the Elka's on, I'm getting 10.5 in the front, and 10" in the rear. Getting the Elka's is by far the best mod you can put on the 700. The stock suspension gets out done by the power. Just in the little bit of time on the 700, I noticed a huge difference. I have a paved driveway. Before, if I hit the throttle about 3/4, the front would go sky ward. After the Elka's, I did the same thing, and it rode about a 1' to 1 1/2' wheelie down my driveway. So now on takeoffs, I can give it more juice, without it going strait up. I now can take corners sharper and not be tipping. And the ride is way more plush then stock. I'm hoping to take it to my track on Friday, to really see how it does.

 

My experence is the same as GE4x4's. I only changed the front so far ...... but like very much what it did for
the quad. Perhaps GE4x4 can convice me I need the rear unit !!

 

Where did you guys order your Elka's from? Direct or from Rick? Putt

 

Rick

 

Save your self $200, and get them from Rick. I got them a week after I ordered them.

3TV, you are right, these are some very nice looking shocks, and I bought the shock skins to keep them looking that way.

VFORCER, as far as getting the rear shock, for me, that was a no brainer. I was getting pogo stick with the stock one on the woops. Plus now the ride is so much better. I think after a while, you will match the rear to the fronts. They complament each other.

 

Mr.3TV and Mr.GE, please give us a ride report as soon as possible, I am most interested.

 

I've got them on both front and rear. I did last week's desert race that 3TV wrote about in this forum. I received mine the Thursday before the Saturday race so I didn't have time to do any adjustments and just rode them with the factory settings. I ordered mine directly from Elka.

From what I can see, the SSD (I think that's what Elka calls it) lowers the bike by taking the preload off the softest spring. I didn't think the instructions were that great. They talk about positive and negative neutral points but don't describe what the best neutral point is. So I'm still confused. I'm going to call Elka tomorrow and ask for advice.

This past Sat. I did two 13 mi. laps during the desert race with them on. It took about 3/4 of a lap for me to get used to them. But I was definitely faster the second lap as I gained confidence in the suspension. They didn't fade, and provided a much improved ride over the stock. I did wheelie about a foot off the ground on the dead engine start though and that cost me.

I lowered the fronts almost all of the way after the race and I'll give this setting a try this weekend. This makes the shocks softer and soaks up the little bumps while transferring the impact later to the second or third spring. I could definitly tell a difference hitting the curb at a 90 degree angle. Much less impact transmitted to the handlebars.

The fronts are very easy to mount. The adjustment tool is easy to use and works great. I WD-40'd the threads before I screwed the adjustment up to make the adjuster ring rotate easier. It makes a difference.

I had to take the rear plastic off to mount the rear shock. The top rear shock bolt is the bugger. Looks like I'll probably have to take off the rear plastic to adjust it too.

BTW, I have all 3 stock shocks for sale if anyone is interested. Used less than 5 hours.

Mark