Alta Motors Redshift

[Rix]

What is the most range you gotten out of a ride....meaning a good fun ride, not just max range?

Looks like a good time always in your pictures.

Tom

With my Zeros I don't have odometers. I can tell you I have done 5.5 hours of riding and come back with over 1/3 charge left. The type of riding you do will effect this drastically. You can go full throttle at top speed down long straight gravel roads and use up the battery in 1/2 hr to 45min But you can also ride something like 10 hours on single track on 1 charge.

The truth Arlo, some of the shit I ride, I can get 4 hours of riding, and only cover 35 miles or so, and still have battery left. Conversely, I can ride sand washes and after about 30 minutes of WOT in Map 2, I am close to being out with only 23 miles or so covered.

 

[Rix]

SR241 on the rear??

This tire is much much bigger than the 18x4.00-18 SR241 tire. Its a MotoZ Mountain Hybrid 120/100-18 tire and the tire is HUGE!!! The pics do it no justice. If Shinko made an 18x5.25 SR241, it would still be smaller than this tire.

 

[litespeed]

What is the most range you gotten out of a ride....meaning a good fun ride, not just max range?

Looks like a good time always in your pictures.

Tom

I have gotten 38 miles with about 5% battery left, and this is good quick trail riding in Map2. I'm not riding a race pace by any means, but I am also not taking it easy either. Because I ride alone, I only ride fast enough to minimize crashing and possibly getting injured. My friend tells me I still have "A" rider skill with slow "B" rider speed.

That is probably the way I ride....closer to “B” rider skill in all honesty but ride hard for fun but always leaning towards riding to live. Scars are not as fun as they used to be.....and I have plenty.

Thanks for the answer. 38 miles is a good time but I’d always want at least 50.

Tom

 

[Arlo1]

Thanks for the answer. 38 miles is a good time but I’d always want at least 50.

Tom

Man you 100% missed the point. You can get 200 miles if you want.

With a dirt bike its about ride time. You can get X amount of time in a day on the bike. For me its 2 hours or hard riding and I have 1/2 a charge left of 5-10 hours of hard single track.

 

[boars]

So I take it no one bought them out and they're just gone now?

 

[Rix]

So I take it no one bought them out and they're just gone now?

Right now thats what it looks like, however, the main website is still running, and my log in for updates from Alta is still valid. So I don't know whats going on.

 

[boars]

Alta Motors resurfaced last week, when Canadian company BRP—the owner of such brands as snowmobile maker Ski-Doo and watercraft producer Sea-Doo—acquired select Assets of Alta. There had been hopes someone would purchase and revive the California e-moto startup, but that looks unlikely. “We don’t have any current plans for resuscitating Alta Motors in it’s old form,” BRP’s Vice President for Communications Leslie Quinton told TechCrunch. “We have no plans yet to announce how we’re going to use the technologies,” she said.

source: https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/28/zero-motorcycles-leads-in-electric-motorcycles-as-brp-scoops-up-altas-remains/

Looks like she's dead Jim.

Wonder what BRP is going to do with the bits and pieces they've nabbed.

 

[macribs]

Electric three wheelers and 4 wheelers maybe? Electric can am side by side?
Really to bad that Alta motor went belly up, let's hope BRP will do something clever and not just sit on the tech.

 

[benjamin84]

Sucks they weren't bought up by someone intent on continuing the work on a road legal enduro bike! The only competitor was the Freeride E from KTM and that is a much smaller motorbike, and not a full on Enduro model.

 

[Arlo1]

Sucks they weren't bought up by someone intent on continuing the work on a road legal enduro bike! The only competitor was the Freeride E from KTM and that is a much smaller motorbike, and not a full on Enduro model.

Zero FX

 

[benjamin84]

The Zero's are nice bikes, and I did give the FX a good test ride last year as they are readily available here, but they are barely suitable for off road use on anything but nice gravel roads in my opinion The suspension is really not that great, and they generally feel like road bikes made to look like off roaders. The Alta on the other hand was a full on motocross bike that just happened to be electric, with WP suspension and a solid jumpable chassis.

 

[Rix]

I haven't ridden the Zero FX, based on appearance alone, it looks like a decent dual purpose pavement and dirt road bike and light offroad duty and trail riding capabilities with no problems. Contrary, the Alta is as much of a dirt bike as any of the KTM SXF and XCF series.

 

[benjamin84]

The FX does look like it shoul be decent off road, but the suspension is what lets it down. It lacks the plushness and travel you need for anything more challenging than a nicely maintained fire road. Not saying it can't do it (I've ridden a stock CB500X on single trail and that was barely more than a road bike with some offroad visual addons), but it won't be happy about it. And forget about anything challenging like a step up or a log hop, no way it can cope with that more than a couple of times without falling apart.

At least that is what it felt like based on a brief test in an urban environment where I tried to find some obstacles like curbs, ditches and such. I quickly decided it would not be suitable for my use. Ended up with a lighter e-bike (Qulbix Q140MD) and a KTM 690 Enduro in combination instead, covers silent riding locally and longer range stuff One day I hope to find an e-bike/motorbike that can do both!

 

[Rix]

The FX does look like it shoul be decent off road, but the suspension is what lets it down. It lacks the plushness and travel you need for anything more challenging than a nicely maintained fire road. Not saying it can't do it (I've ridden a stock CB500X on single trail and that was barely more than a road bike with some offroad visual addons), but it won't be happy about it. And forget about anything challenging like a step up or a log hop, no way it can cope with that more than a couple of times without falling apart.

At least that is what it felt like based on a brief test in an urban environment where I tried to find some obstacles like curbs, ditches and such. I quickly decided it would not be suitable for my use. Ended up with a lighter e-bike (Qulbix Q140MD) and a KTM 690 Enduro in combination instead, covers silent riding locally and longer range stuff One day I hope to find an e-bike/motorbike that can do both!

I found what you are looking for, glad I could help you out.
http://www.tacita.it/t-race-enduro/

 

[benjamin84]

The FX does look like it shoul be decent off road, but the suspension is what lets it down. It lacks the plushness and travel you need for anything more challenging than a nicely maintained fire road. Not saying it can't do it (I've ridden a stock CB500X on single trail and that was barely more than a road bike with some offroad visual addons), but it won't be happy about it. And forget about anything challenging like a step up or a log hop, no way it can cope with that more than a couple of times without falling apart.

At least that is what it felt like based on a brief test in an urban environment where I tried to find some obstacles like curbs, ditches and such. I quickly decided it would not be suitable for my use. Ended up with a lighter e-bike (Qulbix Q140MD) and a KTM 690 Enduro in combination instead, covers silent riding locally and longer range stuff One day I hope to find an e-bike/motorbike that can do both!

I found what you are looking for, glad I could help you out.
http://www.tacita.it/t-race-enduro/

Never heard of them, looks really cool! 9kWh battery is pretty insane too.

 

[Arlo1]

I found what you are looking for, glad I could help you out.
http://www.tacita.it/t-race-enduro/

Lol that's not where you want the weight of a battery.
looks like a converted MX bike.

 

[Arlo1]

The Zero's are nice bikes, and I did give the FX a good test ride last year as they are readily available here, but they are barely suitable for off road use on anything but nice gravel roads in my opinion The suspension is really not that great, and they generally feel like road bikes made to look like off roaders. The Alta on the other hand was a full on motocross bike that just happened to be electric, with WP suspension and a solid jumpable chassis.

You asked for a road legal enduro bike which is what a FX is. Yes the suspension is not great but most enduros have shitty suspension.

What you should have asked for is a road legal MX/SX bike which is what Alta was!

I am with you I want an Alta VERY bad!

So the question is this.
How many people want to do an open source electric MX bike?? Maybe we can get this going.....

 

[Rix]

I found what you are looking for, glad I could help you out.
http://www.tacita.it/t-race-enduro/

Lol that's not where you want the weight of a battery.
looks like a converted MX bike.

Yah Arlo, that is correct and puts a lot of weight up higher than I would like. It does look like a converted MX bike. Still, 9kwh battery would give me all of the off road range I would every need. My Alta is good for 40 miles of trail riding, and that covers 95% of my needs. But if the Alta had an 8 or 9kwh battery, I would never have to entertain a gas bike again for extended trail rides.

 

[benjamin84]

The Zero's are nice bikes, and I did give the FX a good test ride last year as they are readily available here, but they are barely suitable for off road use on anything but nice gravel roads in my opinion The suspension is really not that great, and they generally feel like road bikes made to look like off roaders. The Alta on the other hand was a full on motocross bike that just happened to be electric, with WP suspension and a solid jumpable chassis.

You asked for a road legal enduro bike which is what a FX is. Yes the suspension is not great but most enduros have shitty suspension.

I think we might have a different idea of what Enduro means - here in Europe the term is used to refer to the bikes used in Enduro racing competitions, such as the KTM EXC range, which have anything but shitty suspension Could be different in the US maybe?

My dream bike is essentially a 500 EXC, but electric. Which is what the Alta was. Sadly they were never available here officially and weren't approved for road use.

 

[Rix]

The Zero's are nice bikes, and I did give the FX a good test ride last year as they are readily available here, but they are barely suitable for off road use on anything but nice gravel roads in my opinion The suspension is really not that great, and they generally feel like road bikes made to look like off roaders. The Alta on the other hand was a full on motocross bike that just happened to be electric, with WP suspension and a solid jumpable chassis.

You asked for a road legal enduro bike which is what a FX is. Yes the suspension is not great but most enduros have shitty suspension.

I think we might have a different idea of what Enduro means - here in Europe the term is used to refer to the bikes used in Enduro racing competitions, such as the KTM EXC range, which have anything but shitty suspension Could be different in the US maybe?

My dream bike is essentially a 500 EXC, but electric. Which is what the Alta was. Sadly they were never available here officially and weren't approved for road use.

This is true Ben. As far as what Arlo is referring to, up until at least the 1970s, an motorcycle that could be ridden in the dirt, and be plated for legal road use, was referred to as either an "Enduro" or Dual Purpose motorcycle. Up until KTM make there XCF street legal by call them EXC, no body made a street legal dirt bike worth a crap. Our state side options just 12 years ago and further back were bikes like Kawasaki's KLR series, Honda's XL series, Suzuki's DRS series and Yamaha's XT and TW series. All of the bikes sucked and didn't do anything well. My last dual purpose motorcycle was the then new Honda CRF250L with a 305 big bore kit, and procircuit suspension mods. The weight of my bike went from 320 pounds to about 300 with all of the other shit I did to it to shave weight, license plate bracket kit was 2 pounds, gone, FMF exhaust system, 6 pounds knocked off. small Lithium MC battery, another 5 pounds knocked off. the rear procircuit shock and kouba link suspension was almost 3 pounds here, and removal of the passenger foot pets and frame mounting brackets took off the rest of the weight. Now with all this crap I did the CRF, it worked way better off road, but still sucked very bad compared to the EXC and my Alta.

 

[benjamin84]

I realise I might be exposing my relatively young age and late start to off road riding I started off with sports bikes when I was young until one summer, in 2014, I decided to buy a second bike instead of upgrading the 600RR I was riding. Went all in and bought a 500 EXC Six Days edition that turned out to be the best thing since sliced bread, and I barely touched my sportsbike which was sold later that year. Since then I have joined my local Enduro and Motocross club and been 100% gravel and off road focused, any riding on tarmac is just a necessity to connect the good riding areas together

This year I will be exploring the local trails on a 15kW Qulbix Q140MD, which depending on where you come from is either a tiny motocross bike or a huge bicycle. Either way it is great fun to ride and totally silent, perfect for exploration and camping trips in the local wilderness! And the suspension is actually pretty good too

Edit: As we are sharing pictures, I went from this in 2014:


To this now:

 

[Rix]

Awesome Ben, I like that 6days EXC, pure beauty. Your mid drive Raptor looks great too. That will be a hoot this coming northern hemisphere riding season. Feel free to share pics of your rides on this thread. Its predominately dedicated to Electric Offroad MC s off all types, Alta, KTM any high performance ebike designed for offroad. We allow gassers here too.

 

[Rix]

New skid plate pics

 

[engate]

And the suspension is actually pretty good too

The DNM suspension on the qulbix is actually horrible.The fork is sticky,small bump sensitivity is non existent.It's acceptable as long as you don't ride fast.I have a Q140MD as well and after a hard high speed off-road ride my hand hurts. It shakes the handlebar hard.My other ebike with fox fork (only 130mm travel) is butter smooth compared to this chinese garbage.The front fork needs to be replaced with a FOX 40 or something similar for sure.The rear DNM shock isn't that bad,but a fox shock wouldn't hurt there either just to get a bit better performance.

 

[Arlo1]

I found what you are looking for, glad I could help you out.
http://www.tacita.it/t-race-enduro/

Lol that's not where you want the weight of a battery.
looks like a converted MX bike.

Yah Arlo, that is correct and puts a lot of weight up higher than I would like. It does look like a converted MX bike. Still, 9kwh battery would give me all of the off road range I would every need. My Alta is good for 40 miles of trail riding, and that covers 95% of my needs. But if the Alta had an 8 or 9kwh battery, I would never have to entertain a gas bike again for extended trail rides.

The battery can't be that hard to rebuild in the Alta. Once there is some better cell tech just swap them out.