Walker Evans Velocity Shocks—Will They Make It onto Mountain Sleds?
Polaris Industries released its new 600R snocross sled upon the world this past week at Haydays. But why would mountain riders care about that? Here’s why: oftentimes new technology on the manufacturers’ flagship racers will trickle down to our favourite mountain maulers. Enter the new (to sleds at least) Walker Evans Velocity shocks.
The Polaris 600R sled is compliant with the new ISR rules that have come down requiring the Open class racers to run stock engines and chassis. Some people say this is good, some say it will ruin snocross, however that is a different debate for another day.
In the meantime, it should be noted that side-by-side UTV riders have been raging about the Walker Evans Velocity shocks for awhile now, and with the release of the 2018 Polaris 600R we see them introduced to the snowmobile world.
Walker Evans Velocity Shocks Introduced on Polaris 600R Race Sled
The biggest improvement on these shocks over the standard WEs is the position of the piggyback resevoir. Mounted much lower on the shock body, the resevoir is now below the full travel of the shock piston. This allows the shock to have two very different performance ranges; plush for the first bit of travel to be compliant in the small chatter bumps but stiff once the piston has travelled past the resevoir orifice. Imagine a shock that can be set up soft for comfort and ease of powder carving but still has the ability to absorb the big hit from that drop you just pounded without bottoming.
As an added bonus, this low mounting of the resevoir allows the Polaris engineers to turn the shock 180 degrees and hang the piggyback on the INSIDE, close to the bulkhead. This helps centralize the weight (one of Polaris favourite buzzwords) as well as help to protect the piggyback from damage. Snocrossers need this protection because “rubbing is racing”, but this will work equally well for the tree riders among us who don’t like hitting expensive shiny parts with sticks.
Will these new Walker Evans Velocity shocks make it on to the RMK lineup for next year? Only time will tell, but we think they would add to the cool factor of the Assault at the very least!
— Marty