There is no lack of power, which can be tailored to your liking via four engine modes. And in the center, you will find a monitor that displays your speed, distance, current battery charge and a green glow when the bike is “live”. Instead, you will find the map switch on the left side where the kill switch would normally be. Sitting on the bike feels normal except for the lack of a clutch lever. The bike comes standard with four different maps, two are more track oriented hi-performance settings and two that are mellower, and provide more control in technical, low traction conditions. Plastic is courtesy of Acerbis.Īlta has spent countless hours developing the controller and optional maps, which dictates the connection between the throttle and rear wheel, engine braking (which also re-charges the battery), traction control and indirectly impacts the battery range. Built in California, the Alta Redshift MX sells for over $14,000 but has little operating expenses. And just as important as the battery, the controller is a water-cooled design that integrates into the whole unit and uses the upper frame rails for cooling.
The motor is a water-cooled 14,000-rpm brushless design that delivers a consistent, linear 40 horsepower, in the range of a current 250 four-stroke MX bike. That battery pack is developed in-house using 18650 lithium-ion cells that provide two to three times the amount of energy per weight found on commercially available battery cells. It looks like a standard motorcycle with a huge battery pack where the engine would normally be. And the subframe is a two-piece plastic unit that helps make up for some of the weight penalty of the battery. The CNC-machined aluminum-forged mainframe is constructed with the motor and controller nicely integrated. The build quality is immediately apparent on the Alta. The bikes are produced at their Brisbane, California, facility and the end result are beautiful motorcycles that perform just as well, at least the Redshift MX, which we tested here.
#ALTA REDSHIFT MX SOFTWARE#
Alta is currently producing two models-Redshift MX and Redshift SM (Supermoto)-and has over 50 employees with their own in-house software lab, battery lab, machine shop, R&D department and EOL (End Of Line) testing to ensure that each component can withstand rigorous use in all environments. The company has been built up to design, develop and manufacturer state-of-the-art motorcycles that happen to have an electric powerplant. They wanted to create a better motorcycle, not just a quieter, more eco-friendly motorcycle, and determined that could be accomplished with a battery-powered electric motor.Ĭlick here to read this in the Cycle News Digital Edition MagazineĪnd the goal for Alta is not to create a few “one-off” electric bikes. Living in California’s tech rich Silicon Valley, the same area that Tesla was born, exposed them to the capabilities of electric powerplants.
The electric-powered Alta Redshift MX is a remarkably capable motocrosser.ĭorresteyn and Sand, two friends that have a background in motorcycle riding and industrial design, created Alta in 2010. It is this kind of performance that drove Alta founders, Derek Dorresteyn and Jeff Sand to choose to create a new electric motorcycle.
An electric bike that is all about performance.ĭid you know that the quickest production car currently available is a Tesla Model S (P100D w/Ludicrous option)? The all-electric sedan tops the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, Bugatti Chiron and a host of “super cars” from Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Lamborghini, Audi and McLaren.
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