FEATURE
CYCLE NEWS PIKES PEAK PROGRAM UPDATE
P86
third of the mountain.
Pirelli has come on board as
a major sponsor and supplied a
fleet of SC1 slick tires for us to
shred through, and they have
proved invaluable so far. I've
ridden on Pirellis for years in
Australia and love the progres-
sive feel they have, especially on
acceleration. The SC1 is super
soft and the rear is pretty much
cactus after four hard sessions
at Fontana, although the front
seems to last a bit longer.
We are undecided on what
tires we will run in the actual
event, but it'll most likely be the
SC1 rear and either a treaded
race-spec front or the same
SC1 slick we've been testing on
(being in the Heavyweight class,
we don't have the restrictions
on slick tires some of the other
classes have). Tires are one of
the complete unknowns for us
as the track temperatures will
play a major factor in what we
run. During official practice, we
ride very early in the morning,
and during the race itself, we
run much later in the day. That
means a massive increase in
track temps, so I think final tire
choice will have to wait until the
last few days of testing and quali-
fying, or even race morning.
Our Cycle News/KTM North
America 1290 Super Duke R
is now back at KTM HQ for a
full service, new front and rear
brake pads, a clutch inspection
(this one already had 5500 miles
of traffic use), new steering sta-
bilizer and possibly a new offset
of handlebar we'll test out at our
final run in May before packing it
up for Colorado.
Just quickly, I can't go further
without thanking KTM North
America, in particular Tom Moen
and Chris Fillmore, and Pirelli
North America's Jeff Johnston
and Chet Plewacki, for every-
thing they have done leading up
to the event.
We've got one test to go, then
it's time to hit America's Moun-
tain for the 100
th
Anniversary of
the Pikes Peak International Hill
Climb! CN
It's
a
small
operation,
this
Pikes
Peak
program!
