Well I went to Sahara This week for my first trip with my new shocks & a arms.
Here's my report

The a arms made a huge diffrence!!
No one can say my Raptor is "Tippy" any more!!
I was zipping around on a dune I went from soft powder to wet sand & it used to just slide over it under power. Not this time!!! That front end hooked up & almost threw me off the quad!!
The added stability is amazing!!!
Changing directions while climbing a dune doing treeshots is much easier!!
I set them up with -2 camber & 1/8" toe in.
My only complaint is the tie wraps I used to secure my brake lines messed up the powdercoat & they got scrached up.
I haven't seen powdercoating that fragile before.
It's no biggie but Swytak may want to check in to that.
I'll get some pics up of them later
I bounced them off a few trees & ripped thru the trails & whoops.
I would recomend +2+1 a arms to anyone with a Raptor!!!
An extended swing arm (+2 or +3 to keep the front end down under power while climbing) & my Raptor will be the perfect dune machine!!

The Jury is still out on the Elkas, they were real stiff, granted they're brand new & not broken in yet but they are stiff!!
It was also in the 30's & 40's the whole time I was there & that could have made the fluid thicker.
I have the springs on the softest setting & the compression adjustment came at the softest setting!!!!
I would have thought the compression adj should have been set in the middle of the adj range instead of full soft!!
It's susposed to take 10hrs or so to break in the shocks & I got about 6 hours on them now so maybe they'll loosen up a bit more when fully broken in.

I had mine set up for my weight & for agressive dune riding.
Marty said it's between a dunes & XC set up.

They seemed to work best when really riding hard.
I'll save my final judgement after they're fully broken in.
Even though they seem stiff they are a big improvement over the stockers.

I had them set up for the most extreme riding I do, but I don't ride that hard most of the time, I probably should have had them set up softer for regular riding & cranked up the compression when I wanted to ride hard.
Keep this in mind when ordering shocks.

 

Great report Moose! I'd send the shocks back and have them redone. JMO

 

I took my Raptor out for the first time since installing the new Elka's this weekend and noticed the same thing. When putzing around, they seem a little stiff, but as soon as I opened it up and started throwing the bike around....WOW! What a difference! To me, it was like riding a different machine.

 

I'm going to leave them as is for now, They're not fully broken in & it was awfully cold this trip.
I'm hoping they'll loosen up a bit after a few more hours riding time.

If they don't I'll send them in for revalving when I get a extended swing arm.
I'll know better how to tell them to set them up this time.

 

Well after spending two riding days riding the Elkas hard I decided to send them back to the dealer and have them checked out. They seemed like they would not be bottomed out but they were so stiff that riding through anything rough beat the crap out of you. I moved the uper spring collar almost all the way to the top trying to reduce the spring tension and it didn't help. I also turned the compression to the softest setting but the adjust didn't seem to make any difference. I don't know a lot about shocks but I thought that if the compression adjustment isn't making any difference maybe the shocks are sprung way to heavy. I'll keep you updated I know other guys who have sent them back to the same shop after getting them from the factory way too stiff and they were extremely satisfied afterwards.
g2g, Diggler

 

Dirt, what shop did you send your Elkas to for revalving & how much did it cost??

 

I'll pm you the info.

 

Got it, Thanks!!

 

U R Welcome!

 

i finally got to ride on my shocks the front feels fine but the revalved rear
seems to be soft...ive left a couple of trenches where the belly has scrubbed
the ground on minor jumps but they worked out very well on the whoops
when 4th was pinned back