My Pikes Peak 2019

SquadraCorse

SquadraCorse

Well-known member
This year I was fortunate enough to get an invite to race in the 97th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, which has been a huge goal of mine and the reason I started racing in the first place. A few years ago they changed the rules and required an expert/pro race license to be eligible. I started racing AFM, got my expert license after a year, and put in some solid results to bolster my race resume. Racing Pikes Peak has been a dream of mine for the better part of a decade.

Preparation for the race took months. I slept in an altitude tent to acclimate my body and changed my diet and physical fitness routines. I spent countless hours on the driving simulator and watching on-board footage to memorize the 156 corners. I also put tons of time and money into the bike and getting it converted from its usual road racing setup. All in it cost north of $10K to put the program together, get out there, and run the week. It's truly a one of a kind event and a grueling race week. Up every day at 2:30am, setting off on your first practice run at 5am, done by 8:30am. Get back, prep the bike for the next day, and try to recoup some energy.

The PPIHC organization is fantastic and they run the event like clockwork every day. The fans were incredible and are fanatics for the event.

I had a main goal of making it to the top on race day, and a secondary goal of a sub 12 minute run. I ended up clocking in an 11:50 which is pretty decent for a decade old YZ and my first time there. Definitely hoping to be invited back next year and bring a little more power and experience to the fight. :thumbup

Race Run:
https://youtu.be/IWjBHEHbElE

AFM Mode:
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Pikes Peak Mode:
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budman

budman

General Menace
Staff member
Very cool Tom...!

Congrats on meeting your goals! :thumbup

Nice pics... the sunrise one is certainly epic. I will check out the vid when I am not working...:teeth
 
bikeama

bikeama

Super Moderator
Staff member
Great pictures and video. All I can say is :hail :ride :hail :ride :hail :ride
 
cal scott

cal scott

Wookie
Thanks for sharing as this is an amazing accomplishment. Congrats! For those of us not in the know, can you provide some more details on the changes to the bike and why? What was it about the AFM mode that doesn't make it ideal for Pike's Peak? Is it simply to shed weight or is there more too it?
 
SquadraCorse

SquadraCorse

Well-known member
cal scott said:
Thanks for sharing as this is an amazing accomplishment. Congrats! For those of us not in the know, can you provide some more details on the changes to the bike and why? What was it about the AFM mode that doesn't make it ideal for Pike's Peak? Is it simply to shed weight or is there more too it?
Click to expand...


Yeah absolutely. The biggest change is in the look. This is because the PPIHC rules state that you have to run a bike that originally came with 1 piece handlebars, and you have to run OEM style bars on the bike. This means my full fairing and clip on's wasn't going to work. I had to design a new triple clamp to adapt some one piece bars to my yamaha R6 front end. Cognito Moto sponsored me and made the triple clamp I designed (amazing machine work and products if you're not familiar with them) With that came a different brake line to reach the caliper. I ran left and right lever guards in case I crashed, so I'd hopefully not snap a lever and be able to keep going.

I wanted to run a belly pan, so I modified a KTM RC390 pan to fit and fabbed up some mounts. You need 6" numbers (they're actually really strict about this), so I made some carbon fiber number plates and aluminum brackets to work with those. The front plate required a new mounting structure which was naturally made from carbon fiber and purple anodized hardware. Nothing says fast like anodized nuts and bolts. This also mounted the bikes electronics. The tracker tail is just a smaller lighter tail than what I usually run and fits the new style of the bike better.

I also ran a Lectron carburetor which is better at handling large altitude changes. The start line at Pikes Peak is at 9,000ft and the finish is at 14,000ft. It's also way easier to make mixture adjustments since they don't use jets.

Gearing went down 1 tooth in the front and up 7 in the rear compared to what I usually race with, and I ran some Metzseler supermoto slicks as opposed to my Bridgestone road race tires.

Research also showed that the cooling efficiency at that altitude is significantly less, so I put on oversized radiators. This turned out to not really be needed and I taped them up to get the engine temps right.
 
H

Heywood

Well-known member
What's your avg speed during the climb? Time goal for next year and what do you think the necessary changes are to achieve that, different bike? At some point does it become an exponential $$$$ spend for x seconds or even tenths of seconds?
Thx!
 
Tumbleweed

Tumbleweed

rollin' right along.....
Woooooow. This is soooooo awesome. So awesome. Amazing.

Not only the race, but your dedication to getting it done. Last time I was involved with “altitude” I got sick. Pretty sure no one ever gonna take a pic of me at sunrise....I be sleeping until the coffee is ready. You’re an animal. Seriously congratulations!!!

Go and do.
 
SquadraCorse

SquadraCorse

Well-known member
Heywood said:
What's your avg speed during the climb? Time goal for next year and what do you think the necessary changes are to achieve that, different bike? At some point does it become an exponential $$$$ spend for x seconds or even tenths of seconds?
Thx!
Click to expand...

Average speed is probably around 60? Max on a 450 is probably around 80-90mph. On one of the heavyweight bikes probably around 140 :wtf

Goal for next year would be a podium. Power is a big thing there. Typically I'd say weight and suspension are more important, but power plays a huge factor given the low air density, numerous 1st gear corners, and constant climb. I'd bump the displacement to the max allowed and up the compression. Fuel injection would be nice, but If I do it on the same bike, I'll put in an O2 sensor and wide band logger to try and get the mixture to where it needs to be. I think I gave up a lot of punch due to it running too rich.

I could just buy a Husky FS450 and not do a thing to it, but what fun would that be :dunno
 
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