Elka Suspension History & Products
We Get an Inside look at Elka Suspension

Quebec, Canada (12/19/2014) – Elka Suspension has really made a name for themselves in the powersports industry by supplying some of the best aftermarket shocks on the market. By crafting each shock to custom fit each application and riding style, Elka Suspension has grown from a team of three to 40 employees within the last fourteen years.

First started in September 2000, Elka Suspension was formed by two brothers Martin & John Lamouruex and Marc-André Kingsley. The business was formed by the mutual friendship between Martin – and Marc-André Kingsley. The two were friends for 10 years prior and felt there was a void to be filled in the form of aftermarket shocks. At the time, Martin was rebuilding dirtbike shocks in his backyard and Marc-André was on the financial side. They came up with the idea of creating their own shocks and market them to the sport ATV market because they felt it was a larger market to tap into.

After starting out of a small garage, Elka Suspension grew from 3 employees to 40 in just fourteen years!

The name “Elka” was formed very quickly after originally naming the company “LK”, which was created by the first letter of each founder’s last name. The three ran into an issue with the name “LK” however. As the law stated in Quebec at the time, a company cannot be incorporated simply under two letters; company names had to be longer than two characters in length. Within a half hour the founder’s decided to use the name “Elka” which is how the two letters “LK” is pronounced in French. The founders thought it sounded nice they just stuck with that and now it is international.

During that time there were only three employees all of which were the founders. Elka Suspension facility consisted of the three-man team in a 2,000 square foot garage. They would all answer the phones; take orders, machine the parts, and custom build shocks to rider specs. The market began to grow quickly which forced them to expand the company.

The three started out producing shocks for the Yamaha Banshee, Yamaha Raptor 660, Honda 250R, and the Honda 400EX which covered almost 90% percent of the market at the time. ATV racing was also on the up-swing and so Elka Suspension started sponsoring many big names in ATV racing including William Yokley, Chad Duvall, Brad Page, Doug Eichner, and Wayne Matlock to name just a few.

Elka Suspension's Martin Lamouruex in 2004 with Elka GNCC Racers (left to right) Chad Duvall, Martin Lamouruex, William Yokley, Brad Page

Fast forward to present day and Elka is still sponsoring some of the biggest names in ATV racing including WORCS Pro ATV & SxS Defending Champion Beau Baron, former Quadcross Pro ATV Champion David Haagsma, and Pro ATV Motocross racer Joel Hetrick.

Elka Suspension still sponsors some of the top names in the powersports industry including defending WORCS Pro ATV & Pro SxS Champion Beau Baron

In addition to the strong Elka Suspension racers in the United States, Elka has racers in many other countries including Ignacio Casale who won the Dakar Rally this year.

Elka Suspension also sponsors international racers like Ignacio Casale who won the legendary Dakar Rally this year