Ride review:
As of this posting date, I have 4 rides on the Alta EXR. I will break down each ride, with the type of riding I was doing, and range traveled.
The first ride was done at Carol Summit in central Nevada. I traveled a total of 38 miles on this ride in the Map1 setting. (I will explain the Map settings later) It was really tight and technical terrain. Top speed in some sections was about 27MPH. I was either climbing or descending the whole time, and it took me right at about 2 hours to the turn around point (19 miles). At the end of this ride (turn around point) I had right at 50% of indicated battery charge left. Did a total of 38 miles, had just a bit of charge left. That said, the first 10 or 11 miles of the ride, were the steepest climbs and descents. Ironically I only used 10-15% of the battery at this stage. I believe this is because the bike is constantly regen breaking when not on the throttle.
Ride 2 was a mix of paved road and sand washes in Map2. I was going flat out hitting 60+ MPH in the sand washes, and 76MPH (Indicated top speed on the pavement. At about 20 miles into the ride, I had around 25% of charge remaining. I was 7 miles or so away from home. I got on the pavement, switched to Map1, and rode back to the house maintaining a speed of 40-45MPH. When I got back to the house, I had only used 1 bar on the battery indicator. I still had about 20% of charge remaining. This suggests that when cruising around 40MPH, the bike has a lot of range. Alta claims a 60 mile range for the EXR in city riding conditions. I believe this is an accurate statement if speeds are kept under 45MPH in Map1.
Ride 3 was intended for dialing in the suspension. Long story short, the WP suspension works very very well, is very very plush, balanced, and good for about a 160# A lever enduro racer. I will be having the shock and fork resprung for my weight and riding ability in the near future.
Ride 4 was experimenting with Map settings. All Alta bikes have 4 map settings which can be toggled through on the fly via a press switch on the left hand side of the handle bars.
Map1 is what Alta calls a traction control map. It will only allow for a little bit of wheel spin before the traction control is enabled. At least I believe this is whats going on. When I crack the throttle wide open in Map 1 on pavement, it takes off with very quick with authority, and I can just barely hear the rear wheel wanting to spin. The front end is light, but doesn't want to flip you over backwards. When I do this same action on dirt, the bike takes off slower, and surprisingly, there is not much wheel spin/traction braking. In the attached picture, the tracks on the left and right are in Map1. Very little wheel spin, the center track is Map2, lots of wheel spin.
Map2 is a way more aggressive map. This thing is fast. When whacking the throttle at speeds below 35MPH, the front wheel comes up and comes up quick. Quicker than my 09 XCF450 in 3rd gear. Map2 is my favorite map. I would be totally happy not having an more power than what Map2 has.
Map3 is like Map2, except there is even more power down low. I can use this map's potential for deep sand and hill climbing only. Its too much every where else I ride. Motocrossers will probably like this map. The kind of rider that can use this map is the kind of rider that can ride a 450MX bike wide open and use all of its potential. I am in no danger of being this rider.
Map4 is stupidly insane. It pulls harder from 40MPH than Map2 does from 30MPH. Lots and lots of wheel spin at lower speed on pavement and in the dirt. its actually harder to wheelie in map 4 than map 2 at lower speeds do to wheel spin. Again, I am not a pro rider and find Map4 to be way more than I need. Multiple test riders on the web have reported that in map 4, the EXR acceleration from 0-60MPH is on par with a 1000cc sport bike. Based on my experiences, I believe it is.
