What's up with ELKA?

[zamfield]

John - it seems that you have a very good product and gets rave reviews from my fellow members.
I'm certainly looking forward to getting my set of shocks delivered and on the bike.
My question is, being in Canada and producing your own superior product, why didn't / doesn't Can Am use Elka over Fox?
Seems like a no brainer to me... Or do you think it's price related? IE Bombardier went for a more cost conscious, performing product?

 

[Trooper]

John - it seems that you have a very good product and gets rave reviews from my fellow members.
I'm certainly looking forward to getting my set of shocks delivered and on the bike.
My question is, being in Canada and producing your own superior product, why didn't / doesn't Can Am use Elka over Fox?
Seems like a no brainer to me... Or do you think it's price related? IE Bombardier went for a more cost conscious, performing product?

From what I understand, there have been negotiations in the past with Can Am which I was not privy to, however I believe that at the end of the day it came down to cost. Our competitor was able to produce a much cheaper product than we were willing to.

Our products tend to be a little more expensive than some of our competitors, and the reason for this is because we do use local suppliers for some of our parts where we have a better handle over quality control than many of our competitors, but unfortunately this does not always allow us to be competitive at the OEM level.

We were recently fortunate enough to get an OEM contract with a large and well known manufacturer, but we made it clear to them that we were not willing to sacrifice quality in exchange for a quantity order, however we got the contract anyways based on our products reputation.

 

[Lou]

Hey forum! Have any of you ordered ELKA shocks directly from manufacturer? What was your experience? I ordered a new rear shock online over a week ago, and recently got a notice that it would take at least 10 more days (translation 2 more weeks) just to make the thing, and then more additional time to ship it. Now I am certainly no expert at this- but don't understand why the time length. You would think that they would have parts available and then put it together when ordered. We aren't talking building a rocket to Mars here. I had no idea when I ordered that it would mean a month of down time! Even if the shock is being built from scratch, I just don't get the delay. In the meantime, my bike sits lonely in the garage. Ideas anyone?

Took about 3 weeks to get mine from factory......well worth the wait, outstanding product!

 

[zamfield]

Received a call from Elka this afternoon... True to their word, shocks are shipping today.
FedEx says they'll be here Monday - as long as customs don't hold them up that is!

Looking forward to getting them on and putting them through their paces!

 

[zamfield]

Shocks arrived today... No shock guards in the box.

Trooper?... :dontknow:

 

[Trooper]

Shocks arrived today... No shock guards in the box.

Trooper?... :dontknow:

We were in such a huger rush to get the shocks out to you I was unable to make it in time to put the guards in the box.

I will send them out to you today.

 

[zamfield]

We were in such a huger rush to get the shocks out to you I was unable to make it in time to put the guards in the box.

I will send them out to you today.

Thanks John... I appreciate the quick response.

The shocks are awesome.
I highly recommend them to anyone that's looking to improve the handling and rise quality of their Spyder.