Let's look at the future with ALTA Motors
There is a good chance that your child, grandchild or great-grandchild will one day ride motocross on a hydrogen or electrically powered motorcycle. The motorcycle market is also starting to become aware of this. If only to give the children the opportunity to practice at home in the garden or in the woods. This without the chance of causing inconvenience to anyone. So we already see a lot of electric step-up models for children.
But electric dirt bikes for adults? A large number of the brands that want to profile themselves in the 'Electric Off-road motorcycles' segment are, in theory, electric mountain bikes. Without a doubt a nice gadget if you want to have endless fun in the dunes, Ardennes or the Pyrenees. Other brands build a model that is stylistically more similar to what we see today, but when these are weighed against the performance of their petrol-powered brothers and sisters, they are often, if not always, found wanting.
That's why there was great interest when I read that former MXdN and 13-time Grand Prix winner Kurt Nicoll won a veteran Endurocross with the ALTA Redshift, against petrol-powered competitors. Of course, it must be put into perspective that he was the only former professional. But my interest was already slightly aroused. The American company then announced that their machine would also participate in the Red Bull Straight Rhythm. An exhibition competition in which Josh Hill would participate as a pilot for them. This against also professional pilots who had access to professionally prepared petrol engines.
Josh Hill gave it his all and finished fourth, showing that the ALTA Redshift is competitive against gasoline engines from the top 250 Supercross riders. The interest was now completely aroused and that is why we had an interview with the people from ALTA Motors.
MxM: How do you start building such a real electric dirt bike?
Jon: It actually started as a project, or better call it a hobby, of our two founders Derek and Jeff. And that in 2010.
Developing an engine like this couldn't have been cheap, because you don't have a single point of purchase, everything has to come from your own ideas. How did you finance this?
In the beginning, private money was invested and the work was done at night or on weekends. A little when there was time. Then everything accelerated with support from external partners and financing through the usual routes that start-up companies can take.
This ALTA Redshift, how does it compare with a petrol engine?
It is equivalent to a 250cc machine.
Novelties always bring critical questions from the masses. Can you possibly refute or counter the following questions?
– Preparing an electric dirt bike is easier.
I wouldn't say easier, but it does make the sport more accessible to practitioners. The Redshift makes a bad pilot better and makes a good pilot great.
– A dirt bike without gears is not a dirt bike.
That's usually an argument made before the motorcycle has been ridden. No one has told me after driving that he or she missed shifting gears.
For people who would like to know, an E-MX engine with gears and a shifter is it something you might be working on? It is unnecessary due to the power transmission and the immediate response of the pulling force of an electric drive.
– Racing is going to be extremely expensive.
We have already proven that racing is about to become much cheaper. The maintenance cost of the engine is much less, the service life of this engine is also much longer. In addition, you don't need any mechanical knowledge to work on your engine, so you can now do things yourself.
– Such an electric 'thing' can never be as fast as a 'real' dirt bike.
We have also already proven this to be untrue. Our bike was even competitive during a 450cc Flattrack race.
The Alta MX engine now costs around $14.995 (€13.980), is there still margin to offer it even cheaper if more people start racing electric?
Certainly, it is a safe argument to assume that with increasing sales volumes and/or further developments in technology, it can become cheaper. Yet if you consider that this product is made entirely in America, and that the maintenance costs are extremely low, then the price difference between a gasoline-powered dirt bike is a lot smaller than what it seems at first glance.
In general you can say that an electrically powered engine has fewer moving parts than a combustion engine. Aren't you afraid that certain companies will lobby for the retention of a combustion engine? The switch to electric racing would mean that many of the current "aftermarket" products would no longer have a function.
The great thing about the aftermarket is a smart and organic market. As soon as new technologies and products are introduced, people in that world start tinkering, researching and trying things out. This is to gain an advantage over their competitors, which is simply what people always do. To think that this behavior and this market would come to a standstill and cease to exist if there is a switch to electric racing seems to me to be a misconception.
The first generation of electric dirt bikes had a battery with a limited battery life. Yours promises 3 hours of use, will the engine continue to perform at 3% of its capabilities for 100 hours?
Yes, it performs at 100% and that until the last percentage is squeezed out of the battery.
Many batteries can only be charged x number of times. How is this with the ALTA battery?
It is difficult to compare different cell types and their quality. There is a huge variety of different cell types, different qualities and sizes on the market. But with the RedShift and with Alta in general we use the highest quality lithium ion cells. The user will therefore see little or no reduction in the battery life over the years of use. In addition, we have already seen in our tests that the batteries we use are good for tens of thousands of charging and empty cycles.
Conclusion: A quick switch to a sport in which petrol engines are relegated to the realm of scrap is not possible tomorrow. This is mainly because we currently only have one brand that we can say with certainty that they offer an equivalent, competitive alternative. One brand cannot provide an economic basis for a professional league. Cyclists don't all ride around on a TREK bike and not all runners wear Adidas shoes. Still, this is a breakthrough. While others did not even come close to the performance of gasoline engines, this ALTA is on par with traditional engine builders. In other words, we can call this bike the TESLA of our sport.
Text: Matthias Van Eeckhoven – Photo Josh Hill: Red Bull
Photos Alta Redshift: Alta Motors
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