Video: KTM Duke 790, Chris Fillmore, and Pikes Peak 2018

And how did the all-time moto champ fare on the middleweight? Watch this. 

In addition to maybe selling me on a KTM 790, Fillmore took yet another title with his 10:04.038 middleweight course record. Even more impressive, he trailed just a few seconds behind the big bikes for a third overall finish. Ducati wrested the heavyweight crown from KTM this year, with Carlin Dunne and his Multistrada 1260 Pikes Peak narrowly besting Rennie Scaysbrook’s 1290 Super Duke R. KTM still holds the coveted all-time motorcycle record, thanks to Fillmore’s performance last year, though the competition is not far behind.

Pikes Peak: A condensed history

Many people don’t realize that the legendary Race to the Clouds wasn’t always a fully paved course. Pavement from start to summit is actually fairly new in the mountain’s history (completed in 2011, after a clash between the Sierra Club and the City of Colorado Springs over gravel washout). The race itself dates back to 1916, when entrepreneur and venture capitalist Spencer Penrose decided to hold a race on the new Pikes Peak Highway he’d just financed. Rea Lentz took home the first year’s trophy with his blistering 20:55.60 run. The race stayed a largely American affair until the 1980s, when European competitors brought new interest to the event. Not long after, the race inspired Jean Louis Mourey’s 1988 film, "Climb Dance," which followed Ari Vatanen’s quest for the all-time course record in his Peugeot 405 Turbo 16 GR. The Finn and his mad little car posted a 10:47.77, effectively halving Lentz’s original winning time.

Pikes Peak today

Pikes Peak continues to be a battleground for racers and manufacturers, and for good reason. The course holds deep historic significance, and it’s a premier proving ground with its 156 turns in just under 12.5 miles and a 4,720-foot increase in elevation. Various classes of motorcycles have raced over the race’s history, but currently only motorcycles with one-piece handlebars (no clip-ons) are allowed to compete.

This means racers have to hustle something other than a traditional sport bike up the hill, which makes the event all the more interesting in my opinion. Current favorites include Ducati Multistradas, KTM 1290 Super Dukes, BMW S 1000 Rs, and Honda/Yamaha 450s.

Common Tread caught up with Chris Fillmore for a few questions about his 2018 Pikes Peak experience:

CT: How did the Duke 790 feel compared to the 1290 on this course? I know you have a little experience with the Super Duke R...

CF: Yeah, one year, just one run on the 1290…. [the 790’s] different, but it’s still a KTM, and it has all the characteristics of a KTM. I think that’s why it worked out so well for me. I had three track days, three tests on the 790 before Pikes Peak. One was in Spain, with the R&D team, that was my first time I got to throw my leg over the bike, and decide if I wanted to commit to racing on it. And it went well, so I let those guys know, ‘I’m in. I think it’s capable of doing what we want to do.’ Then we came here and built one up. I got to go to Buttonwillow, got to go to Montana, and I felt that the bike could do it. 

The biggest difference is really the power. I had to change my riding style for the 790 a little, just the way you attack Pikes Peak in general. With a 1290, you can rely on stop and go, but with the 790 I had to carry corner speed, so my focus was obviously on carrying as much corner speed as possible so that I could still compete at a high level.

CT: So the 790’s got that 75-degree crank offset, and a 435-degree firing order. Does it feel like a V-twin , or a funky parallel twin, or something else? 

CF: You know, I don’t have much experience on parallel twins. Really, all my time was on 600s, a long-ass time ago, then I raced (the Harley-Davidson) XR1200 Championship, and went straight on the RC8, which was a V-twin. I would say it kinda replicates a V-twin. You still have the torque right away, and a very linear power curve, very user friendly.

CT: The bike sounds great. What setup were you running on the 790? Anything special, or mostly factory?

CF: Mostly production. The only thing that was really special was the exhaust, and only because it's a prototype from Akrapovič. We wanted to look at a full system, and they had one of those already built up from R&D, so they loaned it to me for the weekend. On the suspension, we had adjustable suspension, but it was still production-based. Not like a cartridge setup and a full race shock. We played with spring rates, mostly.

CT: When you crossed the line, did you know that was the one? 

No, you never know. If I had a stopwatch that was synced with when I crossed the start line, I could have known. It felt good, it felt like I did what I wanted to do. When I got to the top and  saw that I was only four seconds off an overall win, I immediately went to the thought of ‘Oh, man if only I went a little bit harder, if I had nailed those corners a little bit harder…’ But that’s racing, and I’m okay with it. That's what keeps us going, you know, that’s what keeps us motivated.

CT: So you own the overall motorcycle record, you own heavyweight, you own middleweight. What are they going to put you on next year, a 390?

I don’t know, we’re trying to figure it out. We’ll probably just decide a month before the event next year. For me, that’d be the ultimate goal, to hop on a lightweight bike. I’m thinking more of a supermoto bike, a 450 supermoto, that’s something I would find interesting. My roots are in supermoto, so I think it would be cool to go back there. I’ve definitely done this ass-backwards, probably should have started with the smaller bikes, but there’s nothing like just throwing yourself in the deep end. For me, this year was more enjoyable than the first year. Even though the result last year was more impressive, this was a little less stressful, knowing the mountain and having a year under my belt. The place is amazing. It still blows my mind that they allow us to do this at all.