The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb always delivers the thrills, but this year an especially amazing bike will join Colorado’s ?Race To The Clouds.? It?s a heavily modified factory entry from Zero, with almost 70% more torque than a Ducati Panigale V4R superbike.
The Pikes Peak Zero SR/F aims to set the fastest time in the Open Heavyweight class, and it?ll go head-to-head with the biggest names in the industry. The current record is 9 minutes 49 seconds to the top, and was set in 2017 by Chris Fillmore on a KTM Super Duke 1290 R.

The Race To The Clouds tends to be associated with fire-breathing, custom-built four-wheelers and European rally cars, a reputation cemented by the incredible short film Climb Dance, documenting Finnish rally driver Ari Vatanen breaking the record in a turbocharged Peugeot 405 in 1988. But it actually has a strong history of electric power.

EVs starting racing in the early 80s, and last year Romain Dumas broke the 8-minute barrier for the first time in the electric Volkswagen I.D. R.
Next month, it could be Zero?s turn for glory. The Californian company no longer builds bikes for nerds, and the all-new SR/F has serious performance creds. In showroom form it has 110 horsepower and, more importantly, a stonking 140 lb-ft of torque. That compares well to the 83 lb-ft of the Ducati Panigale V4R.

The factory?s ?Blue Sky? race program has wound this up a notch, under the tutelage of Eddie Smith, Zero?s Mechanical Design Engineer.
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