Khaos velocity shocks verses Raptor / Floats / Exits

[mt.sledder]

Does anyone have firsthand experience on how good the new velocity shocks are compared to Raptors/Fox or Exits? Last season Keith Curtis made the switch from Raptors to the velocities and they sure seem to work for him.

 

[danby]

I have no experience with the exit shocks, that being said I think they are all equally good once set up for the rider. Most people tend to forget when you order aftermarket shocks they are valved and sprung for each order. I found ND the velocity shocks a little lacking. Once I changed the factory rear spring (#180) out for a stock rmk rear spring (#210) I found the total set up to be very good and they left me wanting nothing more. (I'm 250 before gear for what it's worth)

 

[wonderxc600]

He is sponsored by Walker Evan, his shocks are not stock shocks. They have been up graded, and revaleved , but they are better than the regular Walker Evan clickers. I've only heard good things about raptors. I got a good deal on some exit shocks, so I went that route. I would definitely spend the money again.

 

[ENDO1]

I have no experience with the exit shocks, that being said I think they are all equally good once set up for the rider. Most people tend to forget when you order aftermarket shocks they are valved and sprung for each order. I found ND the velocity shocks a little lacking. Once I changed the factory rear spring (#180) out for a stock rmk rear spring (#210) I found the total set up to be very good and they left me wanting nothing more. (I'm 250 before gear for what it's worth)

I agree the 180 stock spring is not that great for over 200 lb riders, I am 210 and found once I set the 180 spring 1.5 to 2 turns tighter( which is appx 10 1/8 ") it was much better and I am now happy with the Velocity shocks, Love the way they fine tune so easy for different conditions, while the piggy backs on the the pro's are very good the velocity shocks are a big step above. IMO

 

[mt.sledder]

I currently have Raptors all the way around on my 2020 850 Rmk that have been valved for me by Raptor. I’m happy with them, just wondering if the velocities with custom valving like the Raptors have are better or not?

 

[danby]

From my experience with raptors is the velocity shocks will not keep up performance wise. That being said the velocity shocks are not a $3000 add on and set up properly I think they are more than enough for the average aggressive mountain rider. The velocities with custom valving may be just as good to be fair When I was riding raptors I had the full rear skid not sure if that makes a difference or not.

 

[FatDogX]

This is definitely an interesting topic!! I have run a full set of Raptors on the last three sleds and they have been awesome!!! I'm looking to snowcheck a 21 Khaos and the plan is to try these new Velocities out. So I guess we'll see........

 

[cvcustoms]

I run Raptors on all of my sleds because I know they flat out work! I have some customers that have both the Raptors and the Velocity shock on their sleds this year. From what I am being told the Velocity shocks are way better then the previous Polaris Piggyback shocks but are not as good of a shock as the Raptor shocks they have on there other sleds.

 

[danby]

I run Raptors on all of my sleds because I know they flat out work! I have some customers that have both the Raptors and the Velocity shock on their sleds this year. From what I am being told the Velocity shocks are way better then the previous Polaris Piggyback shocks but are not as good of a shock as the Raptor shocks they have on there other sleds.

Just curious if those customers have had there velocity shocks revalved for weight/riding style and or changed the springs out for triple rate springs. I know the raptor springs on my standard rmk shocks was a world of difference.

 

[IceAge Performance]

Our take from another thread in regards to the Burandt QS3R vs velocity.

While the WER Velocity shocks are by far the best shock package Polaris has offered on a sled it is still unfortunately rather "dumbed down" in setup for consumers. We put a couple hundred miles on the factory shocks to get comfortable with various configs before switching and running the new fox package as well as did side by side back to back laps on harsh terrain to really compare what was different.

The simples change but biggest gain we saw with the Fox package was ease of adjustment, on the Velocity shocks, too many finite clicks exceeded what any of our test riders cared to tinker with and it was very common to lose track of where you were at on adjustments. This resulted in guys just sort of just cranking knobs without much purpose. The Fox with the QS3 package is awesome and an easy way to make a substantial change from 1-2 or 2-3 etc and also very quick easy visual to see what position you are in. The 3 position clickers represent distinct changes in shock performance that anyone could feel, not some minute change that is almost impossible to discern.


Range of use - The next thing would be the broad range a single setup would run, meaning, with one setup (and clicker position/air pressures) we could easily ride in a larger variety of terrain without making adjustments to the shocks. The progressive nature of air springs coupled with the Evol chamber creates an impressive ramp up in spring rate. This means you have a nice soft initial rate ramping up to very firm right at bottom out. We found various members of our team could run the same setup from trail to powder/backcountry riding to rather large jumps all running the same setup. With the stock velocity shock we just found we were making adjustments more often chasing the "perfect" feel.