{"id":7973,"date":"2013-07-03T11:18:24","date_gmt":"2013-07-03T18:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=7973"},"modified":"2013-07-07T15:46:46","modified_gmt":"2013-07-07T22:46:46","slug":"pikes-peak-bikers-are-no-pikers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/pikes-peak-bikers-are-no-pikers\/","title":{"rendered":"Pikes Peak Bikers Are No Pikers"},"content":{"rendered":"

100-percent paved for the first time in the 91 year history of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb last weekend, \u00a0maybe the road’s lack of flying gravel contributed to the extremely quick times.<\/p>\n

Chip Yates<\/a>, who had set a world record for his electric motorcycle assault on the course, did not race this year, probably involved with his Flight of the Century program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This year, Carlin Dunne performed the honor of riding the fastest on an electric motorcycle \u2013 a Lightning with an IPM liquid cooled, 125kw+, 10,000 rpm motor<\/a>, as used, according to Lightning\u2019s CEO, in the Chevrolet Tahoe.\u00a0 \u00a0Telling Motorcycle.com<\/em>, \u201cIf it can push a 6,000-plus pound truck, think of its performance in a 500-pound motorcycle.\u201d CEO Hatfield says the motor units have been certified to last 900,000 miles<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Maybe those specs made it the fastest of all motorcycles, even beating the Ducatis on which Dunne has set previous hill climb records \u00a0\u00a0This year, the fastest Ducati came in second, over 20 seconds behind the electric bike.<\/p>\n

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Carlin Dunne shows agressive style that helped him set new world record time on Pikes Peak<\/p><\/div>\n

Lightning established a new world\u2019s record of 215 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats, including a fast run of 218 mph.\u00a0 It might be as green as a bike can get, using solar energy to charge its EnerDel lithium batteries.\u00a0 Lightning claims it\u2019s the first racing vehicle in \u201cmajor motorsports events\u201d to leave a zero carbon footprint, although the teams that race across Australia in its famous solar races might quibble with that.<\/p>\n

Dunne was fairly enthusiastic about his mount.\u00a0 \u201cIts power and acceleration is like nothing I’ve ever ridden. When you light that fuse, hang on.”\u00a0 He managed to hang on for 10 minutes, 0.694 seconds to come in ninth overall and first for all motorcycles, averaging 71.917 mph for the 12.42 mile climb.<\/p>\n

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Bared Amarok prototype shows aircraft influence, reductionist design philosophy that helps create 147 kilogram racer. Note dual Agni motors<\/p><\/div>\n

Greg Tracy was perched on an Amarok P1A<\/a>, a motorcycle built in \u201cAtlantic Canada\u201d and which attempted crowd funding to find its way to Colorado.\u00a0 The builders give credit for their design approach to aircraft designers Burt Rutan, Jack Northrop and racing car legend Colin Chapman.\u00a0 They emulate their inspirations with a \u201cmulticellular structural aluminum fuselage\u201d to gain strength with lightness.\u00a0 Their hill climber weighs only 147 kilograms (323.4 pounds), considerably less than Chip Yates\u2019 earlier record holder. The lower weight is pushed around by two Agni motors, similar to those sold for aircraft use by Electravia in France, which send 80 horsepower to the rear wheel.<\/p>\n

The team lists their advantages: \u201cReduced weight.\u00a0 Reduced stress.\u00a0 Reduced tooling.\u00a0 That\u2019s Amarok thinking.\u201d Reduction worked for Amarok, with Greg Tracy earning 14th<\/sup> overall with a 10:23.649 time; faster than the electric world record two years ago.<\/p>\n