I have had the same problem with the compression knobs free wheeling. I have had it happen once before and the dealer replaced it. At 1600km and after a service I noticed front passenger side shock is doing it again. Anyone else have this issue? Any fixes?

[2015 Z Force 800 53/Trail EPS]

I have had the same problem with the compression knobs free wheeling. I have had it happen once before and the dealer replaced it. At 1600km and after a service I noticed front passenger side shock is doing it again. Anyone else have this issue? Any fixes?

I have/had some issues with the balls getting jammed-up with dirt and junk and was able to free-up by first hitting with the pressure washer then working some lube like WD-40 back into the detent area. Only lasts a while but how often does one have to adjust them... Maybe the balls also get stuck in their track and just need some help. My Elkas on my Brute don't seem to ever have this problem.

Rebound is on the bottom, Compression is on the top..IF you have reservoirs. The 53s or Trails do not have reservoirs on the rears so no compression there - just rebound.  The best setting for average trail riding is: Count the clicks from closed (S) to full open(F) and set both in the center. Then on compression go 1-2 clicks to the Fast (F) side and on the rebound go 1-2 clicks to the slow (S) side.

I quoted this so that I could remember where it was.  I need to check mine.  Thanks!

Mine were set in the middle, pretty much all of them.  I set them as you suggested.  We'll see how it works.  One of my buddys rode with me last week and he said it rode rougher than a RZR 800.

[2015 Z Force 800 53/Trail EPS]

Should be better. I sure would like to find a used set of Elkas that would fit this thing.

2017 Z800 Trail:

The complaint on these buggies is that they ride very stiff, and mine was no exception. The manual recommends not to change the shock settings in most cases, but I decided to disregard that advice.

I changed the top adjustment on the front  shock to +4 from lowest (least restrictive?) setting and went for a ride. The results were quite positive.

The front suspension was much more compliant both for small and large bumps, and as to be expected, there was more travel before the shock rebounded. In any case, the adjustment made for a much more comfortable ride.

The back shocks are still quite stiff. I'm going to play around with their adjustments for the next ride in hopes of softening up the bumps a bit more.

Thanks for posting.  After I adjusted mine, I didn't really feel much difference.  It is fairly stiff.  I suppose 8ply tires doesn't help matters much.  I may tinker a bit more.

The front end would hit the bumps with little to no travel before the adjustment giving it quite the buck board ride that would rattle your teeth.

After the adjustment I can feel the front suspension give a little before rebounding. It's still stiff, just no longer jarring. With such a short travel range, you want it to be a little stiff.

I just loosened up all of the compression adjusters on mine.  I didn't get a chance to test ride it yet.  Maybe you should consider backing the spring preload off a few turns.

My "factory shocks" are not the CFMOTO that everyone else has but when I was trying to determine why the rear of my machine rode so hard I determined that it is the springs that are the problem, I checked the a-arms for movement and they were fine then I took off the shocks and checked the compression resistance from soft to firm and on soft it was very easy to compress the shocks by hand and it got much harder to compress them as I dialed in more firmness, at soft or 3 to 4 clicks away if your shocks are like mine the compression resistance is minimal and it is the springs that are way to stiff...in my opinion, I stood on one of my springs on the garage floor and my 230 pounds didn't compress it 1/8", if you look at any of the rzr shocks on eBay they look much less substantial, you will see they have less coils and it also looks like they are thinner stock, the other guys complain about sag with their springs and we seem to have the opposite problem, with my shocks set at 2 clicks off of soft and preload at 0 my machine still rides hard.

I've got my Z800 ex stock shocks set 2 clicks from full open (fast) all the way around and it rides pretty good with 8ply motohammers, even better with the cheap thin-walled stock tires lol