How do you know when your front shocks are bad?

[pitzerwm]

I have the Elka Stage something shocks on the front. When I bought the bike with 11K miles on it, the front was "too loose" for me meaning that the side to side movement was a bit scary in corners. I adjust the threaded part and tightened them up 4 turns each. That seemed to do the trick. This year been riding some and they seem loose again. 17K miles.

I don't see any leaking so is there something that tells you that they need replacing? At the beginning, I called John 3 times at Elka and he never returned my calls, when I got him on the 4th call, he acted like he was doing me a favor for even answering the phone. When I emailed asking to buy the tool that you need to adjust them, zip.

I did have a laser alignment. Tires are good running 18-19PSI.

Any ideas?

[spacetiger]

Do you have the original sway bar?

Shocks only do 2 things, damping and hold the bike up (springs). The springs do not really go bad; its the damping part that goes bad. oil or the nitrogen charge can leak. If hey leak, you should see signs of this; the Elks's are rebuildable.

I would think your shocks are okay. A stronger swap bar should fix the issue you are describing.

Jerry

[pitzerwm]

Do you have the original sway bar?

I would think your shocks are okay. A stronger swap bar should fix the issue you are describing.

Jerry

I do have BajaRon's bar.

[Bob Denman]

Thanks for giving us so much information!
I would also suspect your tire pressures are a little bit low. Everybody finds their own "sweet-spot": mine is between 20 and 21 psi...
Elkas are re-buildable, but this seems to be pretty early in their life for it.
Do you shocks have adjustable damping? You might want to test some changes with that also.

[wanderingman]

As a new rider for sure I am no expert. I just had my 2015 in for service as out of the box it handled bad. They replaced the front tires due to tire belt misalignment, but also the recommended and set my front tires at 25 PSI. This sounds very high from what I read on this site, but my Rt sure handles nice at that setting.

[Chupaca]

It is my understanding that the elka shocks are supposed to be rebuilt as part of the maintenance. There may be internal parts that wear and are not keeping the passages to spec for the best results. Seems odd that their customer service would treat you that way ...

[Bob Denman]

As a new rider for sure I am no expert. I just had my 2015 in for service as out of the box it handled bad. They replaced the front tires due to tire belt misalignment, but also the recommended and set my front tires at 25 PSI. This sounds very high from what I read on this site, but my Rt sure handles nice at that setting.

25 psi might be a bit high...
But if you like it: