Alright, I am going to write a book here.
So I finally finished building up my bike after 4 months. I bought a brand new 2004 specialized demo 9. I had a yeti asx, and I sold, or am selling everything from it except the fox 40. I put all new parts on the demo 9, except the fox 40, including a new rear shock I just bought.
The demo 9 has a longer wheelbase by a few inches, lower stand over height, lower bb, and slacker head angle than the yeti asx. Also, I now have deity dirty 30 bars which are much wider, which makes it harder to whip out and table, and I had a few bar scrapes on trees this sunday, but it provides so much stability. I feel fine with them, and I am only 5'9". So the bike is obviously a different animal than they yeti asx, but I have ridden a demo 9 before for 2 days, and various other bikes upon testing.
Like I said, I like wide bars, they have good and bad things. I have avid codes now, which are a worlds diffence than the hayes 9's. The 9's had ZERO modulation, they had enough power, but no use of it cause they just like to lock up. And code brakes are not too powerful. They are great if you are pinning it up until you hit that small unscrubable double (wow that rhymed). Also, I soon realized with a great rear shock, and a softer front spring, it is easy to get lazy on my demo and run into things I shouldn't, but it isn't really that hard to hop around, or be a little nimble on, it just takes a little effort. (I have seen a friend hop picnic table height on his).
I got a chance to ride it on sunday too, but here are a few pictures of it, I think I posted it on here once before. It was 43 pounds when it had tubes in the tires and a swinger rear shock, but it is now tubless, has an elka rear shock, an elka sticker on the non-drive side and... a kiddie bell. Also, I had snow tires in the pictures. I now have specialized 2.6 pro chunders going tubless somehow on the mavic 823's.
The goods:
I got a chance to ride the shock for about 6 hours on Sunday on a variety of terrain. Banked turns, off camber flat turns, steep rock chutes, jumps, tight rock sections, some baby head rock gardens, and a few gnarly rock gardens, a few switch backs, and a smaller road gap. (6-7 out of 10), 10 being this:
NOT MY PICTURE, JUST AN EXAMPLE
So, it is time for the shock review. Here we go. By the way, I am in no way affiliated with Elka, haha.
Alright, so I have ridden a roco for 2 days straight on a demo 9 at the US open on a friend's bike, whom was kind enough to lend due to an injured arm (and me riding a yeti asx on the open course). I have ridden a vivid for one run, a DHX 5.0 on a demo 9, and it was the only shock to be on my yeti. I have ridden a cane creek double barrel shock for a few runs too on a specialized sx trail. Also, I have taken one run on a manitou revox.
The Elka shock blew them all out of the water... and it is not like a lot of these shocks (excluding the double barrel, it is simply not true for this shock), you can actually tell a difference with each and every click! It is the exact opposite of my fox 40's low and high speed compression.
With the elka you get 16 clicks of rebound, 22 clicks of low speed compression, and 22 clicks of highspeed compression. I adjusted the low speed up about 4 clicks (15 out of 22) because I need a little forgiveness with it being one of my first times the season, but don't get me wrong, I was still pinning (or trying) the whole time. I will be leaving the rebound in the middle, turning the high speed compression down (I didn't bottom once in the middle of the settings! (11 out of 22 clicks), and will be turning the high speed compression up a few clicks.
Pedaling efficiency: Remember, I came from a yeti asx with a DHX 5.0, and teh frame had 7" of travel. Now I am on a demo 9 with 9 inches of suspension and an Elka shock. With my high speed compression only 15 clicks in, it pedals just as well as they yeti, or very close, and that is a demo 9 (aka:tank) vs. a yeti asx with pro pedal almost all the way up. Even with sprinting on the Elka, I did not get much bob or feedback. Same goes for the swinger, and that roco I was on for 2 days, the Elka is just in a different realm.
Jumping, I would say the Elka was about on par with my DHX 5.0. But that was on the yeti, and that bike jumped excellently as it was. Also, I will be turning the low speed compression up more probably too, so it will make it better for jumping. There is a slacker head angle on the demo as well, so that makes a difference between the yeti's natural jumping ability and flickability as to the demo's.
Rock gardens. The Elka has no comparison with a roco, dhx, or vivid. A cane creek double barrel is up there with the Elka, but the Elka still wins I think. Like I said, there were some baby head rock gardens, and it was pretty supple on those even, but when I got to the square edge hits, the demo just ate them up with that rear shock (can't say that for the swinger that was on there, and the roco just didn't perform as well in that area). Also, I got off line and I hit some rocks going about 20-25 that were about 3/4's the size of my wheel, and I went right over them, and didn't bottom. I would have DIED on my yeti.
Cornering. Simple and sweet, it stuck to flat corners, and railed the berms, even with ones that had braking bumps, like I had glue on the tires. It blew my dhx out of the water. Also, it seemed not to bounce around as much as the vivid I took one run on. It even seemed to track better than a CCDB.
The shock did not bottom very easily either. I didn't not feel it bottom once the whole day, and was going about 20 mph when I cased this road gap that is about 10-15 long and you get about 4-6 feet in the air (depending if you scrub or bender huck it).
All in all, I was very impressed. I have ridden various shocks out there, and this seemed to out do them all, yes, even the CCDB. I believe a huge part of this deals with Elka tuning the shock not only to your weight, but your bike, and even your riding style. Another factor that should be entailed is that the Elka uses nitrogen instead of air. The resevoir is also bigger than a standard DHX or Roco too. Which makes it more room to work with and gives it more volume, but the adjustments are hard to reach on my demo 9, but they are able to be turned. There is clearance too with the shock.
A guy named Patrick over at Elka also helped me. He explained all the settings, and helped me get it set up. Also, Elka machined me some hardware for the shock to fit my demo 9 at the rebound eyelet end (opposing the piggyback), and some hardware for the piggy back end too. I called fox before I considered Elka, and they said they could possibly send me an unfinished shock, but Elka was far from the "good luck buddy" attitude. Another note, the manual was significantly helpful, and explained everything to me in my terms.
The only thing I cannot yet atest to positively on is the reliability of the Elka. Afterall, it was only one day so far, and if your suspension is breaking down on you all the time, it is useless. I have a feeling though it will be reliable. When I first was interested in buying the shock, a person at Elka told me the shock was tested for over 3 years (yaya, I know it's probably a company representative but take it for what is worth).
Weekend warrior, daily downhiller, Josh benders prodigy or just a full out pinner, this could be the shock for you. I suggest it.
Well, it is time for some pictures.
The twistys holding on the metal parts are the custom bits made for me.
So I finally finished building up my bike after 4 months. I bought a brand new 2004 specialized demo 9. I had a yeti asx, and I sold, or am selling everything from it except the fox 40. I put all new parts on the demo 9, except the fox 40, including a new rear shock I just bought.
The demo 9 has a longer wheelbase by a few inches, lower stand over height, lower bb, and slacker head angle than the yeti asx. Also, I now have deity dirty 30 bars which are much wider, which makes it harder to whip out and table, and I had a few bar scrapes on trees this sunday, but it provides so much stability. I feel fine with them, and I am only 5'9". So the bike is obviously a different animal than they yeti asx, but I have ridden a demo 9 before for 2 days, and various other bikes upon testing.
Like I said, I like wide bars, they have good and bad things. I have avid codes now, which are a worlds diffence than the hayes 9's. The 9's had ZERO modulation, they had enough power, but no use of it cause they just like to lock up. And code brakes are not too powerful. They are great if you are pinning it up until you hit that small unscrubable double (wow that rhymed). Also, I soon realized with a great rear shock, and a softer front spring, it is easy to get lazy on my demo and run into things I shouldn't, but it isn't really that hard to hop around, or be a little nimble on, it just takes a little effort. (I have seen a friend hop picnic table height on his).
I got a chance to ride it on sunday too, but here are a few pictures of it, I think I posted it on here once before. It was 43 pounds when it had tubes in the tires and a swinger rear shock, but it is now tubless, has an elka rear shock, an elka sticker on the non-drive side and... a kiddie bell. Also, I had snow tires in the pictures. I now have specialized 2.6 pro chunders going tubless somehow on the mavic 823's.
The goods:
I got a chance to ride the shock for about 6 hours on Sunday on a variety of terrain. Banked turns, off camber flat turns, steep rock chutes, jumps, tight rock sections, some baby head rock gardens, and a few gnarly rock gardens, a few switch backs, and a smaller road gap. (6-7 out of 10), 10 being this:
NOT MY PICTURE, JUST AN EXAMPLE
So, it is time for the shock review. Here we go. By the way, I am in no way affiliated with Elka, haha.
Alright, so I have ridden a roco for 2 days straight on a demo 9 at the US open on a friend's bike, whom was kind enough to lend due to an injured arm (and me riding a yeti asx on the open course). I have ridden a vivid for one run, a DHX 5.0 on a demo 9, and it was the only shock to be on my yeti. I have ridden a cane creek double barrel shock for a few runs too on a specialized sx trail. Also, I have taken one run on a manitou revox.
The Elka shock blew them all out of the water... and it is not like a lot of these shocks (excluding the double barrel, it is simply not true for this shock), you can actually tell a difference with each and every click! It is the exact opposite of my fox 40's low and high speed compression.
With the elka you get 16 clicks of rebound, 22 clicks of low speed compression, and 22 clicks of highspeed compression. I adjusted the low speed up about 4 clicks (15 out of 22) because I need a little forgiveness with it being one of my first times the season, but don't get me wrong, I was still pinning (or trying) the whole time. I will be leaving the rebound in the middle, turning the high speed compression down (I didn't bottom once in the middle of the settings! (11 out of 22 clicks), and will be turning the high speed compression up a few clicks.
Pedaling efficiency: Remember, I came from a yeti asx with a DHX 5.0, and teh frame had 7" of travel. Now I am on a demo 9 with 9 inches of suspension and an Elka shock. With my high speed compression only 15 clicks in, it pedals just as well as they yeti, or very close, and that is a demo 9 (aka:tank) vs. a yeti asx with pro pedal almost all the way up. Even with sprinting on the Elka, I did not get much bob or feedback. Same goes for the swinger, and that roco I was on for 2 days, the Elka is just in a different realm.
Jumping, I would say the Elka was about on par with my DHX 5.0. But that was on the yeti, and that bike jumped excellently as it was. Also, I will be turning the low speed compression up more probably too, so it will make it better for jumping. There is a slacker head angle on the demo as well, so that makes a difference between the yeti's natural jumping ability and flickability as to the demo's.
Rock gardens. The Elka has no comparison with a roco, dhx, or vivid. A cane creek double barrel is up there with the Elka, but the Elka still wins I think. Like I said, there were some baby head rock gardens, and it was pretty supple on those even, but when I got to the square edge hits, the demo just ate them up with that rear shock (can't say that for the swinger that was on there, and the roco just didn't perform as well in that area). Also, I got off line and I hit some rocks going about 20-25 that were about 3/4's the size of my wheel, and I went right over them, and didn't bottom. I would have DIED on my yeti.
Cornering. Simple and sweet, it stuck to flat corners, and railed the berms, even with ones that had braking bumps, like I had glue on the tires. It blew my dhx out of the water. Also, it seemed not to bounce around as much as the vivid I took one run on. It even seemed to track better than a CCDB.
The shock did not bottom very easily either. I didn't not feel it bottom once the whole day, and was going about 20 mph when I cased this road gap that is about 10-15 long and you get about 4-6 feet in the air (depending if you scrub or bender huck it).
All in all, I was very impressed. I have ridden various shocks out there, and this seemed to out do them all, yes, even the CCDB. I believe a huge part of this deals with Elka tuning the shock not only to your weight, but your bike, and even your riding style. Another factor that should be entailed is that the Elka uses nitrogen instead of air. The resevoir is also bigger than a standard DHX or Roco too. Which makes it more room to work with and gives it more volume, but the adjustments are hard to reach on my demo 9, but they are able to be turned. There is clearance too with the shock.
A guy named Patrick over at Elka also helped me. He explained all the settings, and helped me get it set up. Also, Elka machined me some hardware for the shock to fit my demo 9 at the rebound eyelet end (opposing the piggyback), and some hardware for the piggy back end too. I called fox before I considered Elka, and they said they could possibly send me an unfinished shock, but Elka was far from the "good luck buddy" attitude. Another note, the manual was significantly helpful, and explained everything to me in my terms.
The only thing I cannot yet atest to positively on is the reliability of the Elka. Afterall, it was only one day so far, and if your suspension is breaking down on you all the time, it is useless. I have a feeling though it will be reliable. When I first was interested in buying the shock, a person at Elka told me the shock was tested for over 3 years (yaya, I know it's probably a company representative but take it for what is worth).
Weekend warrior, daily downhiller, Josh benders prodigy or just a full out pinner, this could be the shock for you. I suggest it.
Well, it is time for some pictures.
The twistys holding on the metal parts are the custom bits made for me.
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So you have the Knowledge base to claim the Elka is as good as a CCDB, and better then everything else but just set the sag somewhere between 20% and 30%........seriously.
