Practice is under way at this year’s Pikes Peak Hillclimb, and so far the electric bikes are showing their strengths.
Victory Motorcycles have taken both the Project 156 “gas-burner” and the electric Empulse RR to the mountain, but it’s Victory’s electric bike that is consistently topping the timesheets after 3 days of practice.
Don Canet, who rode the Project 156 for Victory last year, is riding the Empulse while former Pikes Peak Champion, Jeremy Toye, has riding duties on the petrol-powered Project 156.
Victory have set up an interesting battle between their two bikes labeling it a battle between “gas and electric” and referring to the battle as “Thunder vs Lightning”.
So far, Jeremy has placed the Project 156 third in the timesheets behind the Kawasaki Z1000 of Bruno Langlois.
The Empulse RR is a race prepared version of the road going Victory Empulse TT.
The main frame is the same as the road going model, but a carbon fibre subframe has been used to reduce weight.
The batteries have been repacked to give more capacity, and the motor and controller have been upgraded for racing.
There is still another day of qualifying on Friday and Set-Up Day on Saturday before racing on Sunday, June 26th.
Victory has also released footage of the bikes being tested at Thunder Hill Raceway ahead of this weekend’s event.