For the second year in a row I decided to enter the now “Epic” ride up Pikes Peak using one of our new BH Emotion bikes equipped with the Panasonic mid-drive motor.  (Epic because it was just voted by Bicycling Magazine as the 2011 Iconic Ride)  For the uninitiated, Pikes Peak is just outside Colorado Springs, Colorado, and rises from the town of Manitou Springs (elevation 6,400) to an elevation of 14,110’ (for those that need help, that’s 7,700 vertical feet).  The ride up the Peak is a 24.5 mile long, twisting, turning, grueling climb from Memorial Park to the summit and is one of only two paved roads in the nation to climb above 14,000’. 

The new BH Emotion bikes arrived from Spain only a few weeks ago and I really hadn’t had much opportunity to test the bikes.  Having crashed my Kalkhoff Pro Connect just a week prior, I was still nursing a wounded shoulder and elbow.  So rather than take the svelte Emotion Sport Road bike as planned, I opted to ride the Sport Max+ which has a sweet Suntour Swing front fork I thought would be just the thing to absorb the nasty bumps when the road turned to dirt.  The Sport Max+ also came equipped with some powerful Shimano disc brakes which I thought would be a bonus on the long decent.  (Many other riders blow tires from the heat generated by rim brakes.) 

Just to makes things interesting, I decided to also test the Nuvinci continuously variable rear hub on the ride.  Late Saturday, I finished installing the Nuvinci provided by Rob Sherlock at Fallbrook Technologies, maker of the Nuvinci, and took it out for a spin around the parking lot.  The gearing seemed a bit low for my taste but it was too late to make any changes for Sunday’s ride.  I threw the bike in the car and headed for my hotel in Manitou Springs. 

I stayed in a quaint southwestern cabin just a mile from the starting line and when Sunday morning came too early, I saddled up with one extra battery and plenty of warm clothing in the rear bag.  The race started right on time with the electric bikes going off at 7:55, five minutes ahead of the non-electric pack. 

The first 6 miles of the ride is a long gradual climb up Highway 24 which they nicely closed off one lane of for us.  This is were trouble began for me.  For some reason I didn’t have any assist at all.  I was spinning away, pushing a 48 pound bike loaded with another 12 pounds of gear, wondering what had happened to the motor.  It wasn’t long before the non-electric riders started to pass me. I was feeling pretty ridiculous and wishing I was riding my LeMond carbon road bike.  I resisted temptation to turn back and pushed on. 

Once I made the turn onto the Pikes Peak Highway the road gets steep.  I slowed and stood up out of the saddle to grind up the hill.  That is when the motor kicked in.  I soon realized that my normal pedal cadence is too high for the standard 8 tooth motor gear and I had been riding without any assistance because the motor intelligence thought I didn’t need assistance.  What do motors know anyway!  (An 11 tooth motor gear will take care of that.) It was time to rethink my strategy.  I dumped the Nuvinci’s twist shifter to provide a higher effective gear and sat back down on the saddle.  All those riders who had passed me were now watching me ride right by them up the steep pitch.  Now it was getting fun. 

Hydration was key as mother nature had delivered a warm day for us to enjoy her alpine splendor.  I didn’t miss the headwinds we had in 2010 either!  I continued to play with the gearing trying to balance motor assist and pedal cadence.  The Nuvinci, with it’s infinitely variable gearing gave me plenty of options to play with. 

I lost my first 12Ah battery at about 12,500 feet, within yards of the spot I lost the battery on last year’s ride up the peak.  The difference was that this year I had 20% more capacity in the first battery (12Ah vs 10Ah) and the first 6 miles was ridden essentially without assistance.  I had figured I would get much further on the first battery.  Such is the inefficiency of a CVT grinding in overdrive!  Plugging in the second battery was like adding a fresh stoker on the back of your tandem.  I took off with renewed vigor and made the summit in 3 hours 12 minutes - 13 minutes longer than last year. 

I was certainly more comfortable on the Emotion but I suspect that the Swing fork also lended some inefficiencies of its own.  In the saddle, it was smooth as silk.  Out of the saddle it allowed a degree frame bobbing that required some attention to keep it in check.  On the descent, the bike handled perfectly and the disc brakes were sure and powerful.  Never once did I worry about rims overheating.  The Nuvinci setup I was riding didn’t have enough overdrive for the descent.  I’ll be playing with that over the next few weeks to figure out what is the best rear cog size on this setup.  On the bright side, gravity did a pretty nice job of getting me down!  Next year I’m riding one of the Emotion ultralight road bikes.