Nikolaus Wogen

Nikolaus Wogen

Nikolaus Wogen

James Harris | Randels Media Group/Revvolution.com, Official Photographers of the PPIHC

Nikolaus Wogen

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb was an all-car affair for most of its 100 years. But the past few decades have seen motorcycles return to the mountain, getting faster (and more dangerous) since the entire road was paved in 2011. As with their four-wheel-riding cousins, bike racers have started looking at electric motors, which, unlike internal combustion engines, aren't fazed by altitude.

This year, 36 bikes, quads, and sidecars were entered in Sunday's race. They would get first crack at the course; running the cars first creates the risk of dirt or rocks being dragged onto the road, and the 12.4-mile (19.99km) route is already unforgiving enough.

"Unfortunately, now that it's all pavement and the speeds are higher, the risk factor is much greater [and] the future of bikes could be in peril. They've had a death the past two years, unfortunately," explained Don Canet. Canet is road test editor for Cycle World and has competed at Pikes Peak in recent years. To try to manage the risk, all of this year's motorbikes have to have single-piece handlebars, and the fastest liter-class Superbikes are no longer allowed. "Not to say the bikes we're running now aren't nearly as fast, but at least it's a move—probably to appease the insurance carrier," Canet said.

Bike manufacturer Ducati has also been trying to assist with rider safety at the mountain. This year it partnered with the race organizers to create the Squadra Alpina, a team of four Pikes Peak expert racers (Carlin Dunne, Micky Dymond, Greg Tracy, and Gary Trachy) acting as mentors for the bike competitors. "We want people to be safe, but to continue this beautiful race we need a safety program—an active or interactive safety program," Dunne told Ars. "First and foremost, we're racing Pikes Peak, all of us together."

Dunne and his colleagues took groups of riders out onto the course and pointed out different hazards and road conditions to be aware of, keeping an eye on issues to bring up with race control as necessary. "Having us there means we can facilitate riders' meetings, debriefings; we can pull riders aside if needed. We'll be competing as any other racer. If I'm feeling the asphalt is cracking, I'll get race control on it. And we want to make sure no one is running wide or taking dangerous lines," Dunne told Ars.

Certainly, everyone we spoke with over the course of the race week was enthusiastic about the contribution the Squadra Alpina was making to this year's event. What other race provides a free series of masterclasses for other competitors?

Despite the danger, Dunne told us that racing at Pikes Peak was a unique experience. "It's hard to be concise. To me it's an emotional experience," he said. "The environment is unlike any other race course. Going up to 14,000 feet, the change in environment—it's very surreal. It causes you as a person to be more present than you ever are in your normal life. Everything around you—the smells, the feelings, the conversations—sear into your mind. There's a magic about that."

Something evidently clicked early on because Dunne won the event in his very first year as rookie in 2011 and then set a record for the fastest ever two-wheeled ascent (9:52.819) in 2012. The following year, he switched to electric power and set another record—10:00.064—that still stands. "Riding an electric motorcycle is far different—the weight and the bike characteristics," Dunne said. "Everything down to the gyroscopic effect of the internal combustion engine, something we normally take for granted."

With Dunne not racing this year, Canet was favored to be the fastest rider in Sunday's race. He would be racing a Victory Empulse RR prototype electric bike, similar to one that performed well at last year's Isle of Man TT (another insanely dangerous road race for motorbikes held in the British Isles). "The bike makes a claimed 192lb-ft (260Nm), so it pulls really strong off slow and medium-speed corners, and there's plenty of those at Pikes," Canet told us. "Beyond 5000rpm—the base speed of the motor—the torque starts falling off. It'll continue revving and I'll build speed into the triple digits, but it's not pulling as hard as a gas-powered liter-class bike would at that point."

Canet told Ars that he found the Victory quite easy to adapt to. "My left foot was kind of bored—no shifting, no clutch—but the chassis is really well sorted." That TT-bred reliability helped a lot, as it meant his pre-race testing (at Thunderhill in California and at Pikes Peak in the lead-up to the race) could focus on getting used to the bike. "It made it a luxury for me to get on it and get used to the subtle differences of an electric bike. It's so quiet. The first thing that's bizarre is getting on the brakes and you just hear the brake pads against the rotors; there's very little other distraction like engine vibration or exhaust note that I'm used to."

Fastest in qualifying, Canet would be the first bike to run the course on Sunday morning for the race. Unfortunately, running first was more of a liability than if he had been further down the order. Overnight weather meant there was snow and ice on the top section of the mountain, and although the organizers delayed the start by over an hour hoping it would all melt, the conditions were treacherous on some of the road's fastest sections. Canet lost time after hitting a patch of oil and then had to tip-toe through the final few corners which were still muddy and slick. His time? 10:17.813.

The course conditions saw several other riders get into trouble, and a series of lengthy red-flag delays ensued. The delays meant that by the time the (gasoline-powered) Heavyweight class bikes were ready to run, the track was much drier. Bruno Langlois took full advantage and beat Canet's best time by more than four seconds. As with the cars, 2016 just wasn't the year for electric-powered to scale Pikes Peak the fastest.

Listing image by Nikolaus Wogen