Rennie Scaysbrook | June 23, 2016
Where else in the world would you get a shot like this!? Early morning practice on Tuesday, heading up towards Devil’s Playground.
Man, what a place.
Watching it on a screen of any size simply does not do this place justice. I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d be racing a motorcycle up a mountain, so to be here telling you guys about it is almost as big a thrill as it is to ride.
I apologize for not checking in sooner but this last week has been nothing but a blur.
I’ve had three days of official practice on the Cycle News/KTM North America 1290 Super Duke R, and for me it’s certainly been a case of walk before you can run. This is easily the most intimidating place I’ve ridden a motorcycle but as the miles progress under the Pirelli slicks, the more the mountain and I are gaining an understanding.
This mountain demands respect. Any backhandedness from me will see me going home in far worse condition than when I came, so I’ve been cautious in my approach, gaining speed and not scaring myself too much.
Getting up at stupid o’clock is all part of the fun at Pikes Peak.
As I type this, we’ve had two days on the top section and one on the middle. We shortened the gearing pretty substantially to try and get better drive out of the hairpin corners, and that’s thankfully seen a sharp reduction in times across the two top sectors of the mountain.
The second section yesterday was a particularly good one, as a few suspension changes helped the KTM ride the bumps a touch better than it had at the tire test.
But to be honest, the bike is far better at its job of going fast than I am of mine. The Super Duke is absolutely at home here, it tracks beautifully and has more motor than I know what to do with. I’ve spent over 12 months riding this very bike and it now feels like a second skin.
I might have to take out a second mortgage because I don’t think I’ll be able to let it go!
Tomorrow we hit the mountain for the official qualifying session. This will be conducted on the first third of the mountain and should suit the KTM just right. I like this section because there’s lots of on-camber corners that just beg you to throw the orange beast into them, maximizing the shed loads of grip from these soft-compound Pirelli slicks.
Getting the KTM hooking up alongside an iced rock wall. This place is awesome, and so is the bike!
The competition here is extremely fierce. Corsica’s Bruno Langlois has been super-fast on his Kawasaki Z1000 that was built by Akira, the same mob responsible for many a WorldSBK Kawasaki, and he’s certainly the guy to beat in the Heavyweight class. I’m close to his pace but he’s been here for quite a few years and I’m still a rookie, so we’ll see how it all plans out on race day, this Sunday.
If you haven’t already, please head over to the Cycle News facebook page and check out the daily diary videos we’ve been posting. This will give you a real insight to how it is on the mountain and give a few pretty badass rider’s eye view shots of the action.
Thank you so much to all the people and companies who have helped us along the way. In no particular order, cheers to KTM USA, Pirelli, Alpinestars, Arai, Airtech, SP Gadgets, Drive Systems, Apex Sports, The Texas Tornado Boot Camp and LITPro.
Qualifying is tomorrow. I’ll be giving it everything!
Rennie
Photography by Randels Media Group
