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Not-A-Review: Alta Motors Redshift MX

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For a long time now, Asphalt & Rubber has been following the progress of Alta Motors (formerly BRD Motorcycles), as they have worked to make a lites-class comparable electric motorcycle.

With the Redshift MX motocross and Redshift SM supermoto bikes now shipping from the company’s San Francisco facility, the motorcycle community can finally see in the flesh what I have been calling one of the most competent electric motorcycles yet produced.

I have no problems saying I have had a hearty drink of the Alta Kool-aid. I was impressed with the Redshift SM prototype that I rode back in 2011, and the finalized form of the Redshift has only matured further from its strong start. 

I don’t want you simply to take my biased word for it though, so for today’s post, I have enlisted the help of my Two Enthusiasts Podcast co-host, Quentin Wilson. For those who don’t follow the show (shame on you), Quentin is a former chassis mechanic for the Graves Yamaha AMA team and the MotoCzysz MotoGP project. 

He is also an accomplished racer, generally go-fast guy, and has a fair bit of electric motorcycle riding experience as well. It also helps that he is familiar with the woodsy trails we have here near Portland, as we were riding Alta Motors’ motocross machine for the first time, at the Browns Camp OHV Area.

Quentin is like me though: we see electric motorcycles not as an answer to saving the environment, though that is a nice side effect, but instead as a superior method of making motorcycles not only faster, but more rideable.

With those two aspects in mind, I asked Quentin for his thoughts on the Alta Motors Redshift MX, after a couple hours of trail riding.

As you will see, Quentin’s usual ride is a Christini Honda CRF250X, which is an unusual bike in its own right, but fits into the 250cc class that Alta Motors is targeting right now with the Redshift series.

It is an interesting contrast, to be sure, but we think you will enjoy it. Keep an eye out in the coming weeks too for my more measured review on the Alta Motors Redshift SM. -JB

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Bikes

Two Enthusiasts Podcast #30 – The Need for Speed

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Your weekly two-wheeled podcast addiction continues with Episode 30 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast. This installment sees us discussing three different powertrains, the motorcycles that they power.

First up is Harley-Davidson’s new Milwaukee-Eight engine, which will power its Big Twin touring models for the 2017 model year. We then turn our attention to Ducati (no surprise there), and discuss the seeming return of the air-cooled Ducati Monster, which was spied last week.

We finish the show with a lengthy debrief on the Alta Motors Redshift MX, as Quentin and I had previously spent a day riding this electric dirt bike in the mountains near Portland, Oregon.

As always, you can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. Enjoy the show!

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Bikes

Here’s How You Make A Proper-Fast Electric Motorcycle

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It’s been a long-time coming, but customer bikes are starting to roll out of the Alta Motors production facility outside of San Francisco. That’s music to the ears of many patient and eager owners, and we’re pretty excited about it too.

This is because the Alta Motors Redshift SM is a designed to compete against any 250cc supermoto on the market, and the same can be said of the Californian company’s MX model as well, when it comes to motocross duties.

So far, every indication points to the Redshift living up to that promise (A&R will know first-hand, soon enough). Until then though, we’re chewing on this time-lapse video that Alta Motors posted to YouTube.

It’s interesting to see how the Alta Motors crew assembles their production electric motorcycles; but perhaps what is most striking, is the relatively clean and simple design that makes the Redshift come to life.

For a bike powered by batteries and liquid-cooled, there are almost no visible wires or hoses. See for yourself, after the jump.

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Bikes

Alta Motors Makes First Redshift Customer Delivery

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It has been a long time coming for Alta Motors (the electric motorcycle company formerly known as BRD) to bring its electric motorcycles to market, but that day has finally arrived.

Alta Motors has delivered its first motorcycle to a customer yesterday, with Eric Gauthier and Jeannine Smith of Suspension Performance taking delivery of their new Redshift MX.

“We’ve been quietly driving towards this moment for over 8 years in pursuit of creating the best motorcycles money can buy,” said Marc Fenigstein, Co-Founder and CEO of Alta Motors.

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Bikes

“I Am From the Future, You Are Not”

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Last week I was down in California, mostly for the World Superbike round at Laguna Seca, but also to replace a dead hard drive on a server named Heather, and for the Arai Corsair-X helmet press launch. It was a busy week, to say the least.

I was lucky though to stop be and see the folks at Alta Motors, the ranks of whom have swelled greatly since I was last there, as the company is readying itself for production and is soon moving to its new facility for that very purpose.

It might be too early to talk about 2016 model year motorcycles, but the RedShift SM is definitely a bike I am eager to see in its production form, since the prototype definitely impressed me…all the way back in 2011.

Alta seems just about ready to deliver on its “faster than gas” marching orders, and they have been quietly letting friends and family ride their pre-production units at the shop.

One such person was Jon Bekefy, a stalwart of the motorcycle industry, and no stranger to electric motorcycles, having recently worked for the now defunct Mission Motorcycles.

Equipped with a RedShift SM, a helmet cam, and a microphone…good things ensue. We imagine soon-to-be RedShift owners will have similar reactions once they get their bikes. Enjoy the video, after the jump…and Jon, do you really kiss your mother with that mouth??!

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Racing

Interesting Entries for the 2015 Pikes Peak Hill Climb

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The 93rd running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb may be over three months away, but the historic American road race released its official entry list this week, with some interesting participants for 2015’s Race to the Clouds.

So far with 78 motorcycle entries confirmed, our attention was piqued with the entry of a 2015 Kawasaki H2 sport bike by Japan’s Takahiro Itami — an unsupported race entry according to Kawasaki USA.

Bringing things more locally, Colorado-based Ronin Motorcycles has an entry with one the company’s 47 heavily modified Buells, with Pikes Peak class-winner Travis Newbold at the helm.

Coming straight from the Isle of Man TT, Rob “The Bullet” Barber will compete in the electric class with The Ohio State University’s Buckeye Current team.

Other entries of interest include a Ducati 1299 Panigale S by Eric Foutch, a still to-be-determined ride for Cycle World’s road test editor Don Canet, and a TOBC Racing Suzuki GSX-R600 for Asphalt & Rubber contributor Shelina Moreda.

While Pikes Peak has several “To Be Determined” motorcycle entries still to disclose, noticeably absent from the entry list are many of the race’s recent top-finishers.

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News

Alta Motors Out Testing the RedShift MX

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Every time I check-in with the Alta Motors crew, they’re getting closer and closer to releasing their electric “RedShift” dirt bike and supermoto motorcycles.

I suspect we’ll see the San Franciscan company go public with its wares sometime later this year; but before that happens, I know they want to make the best product possible, and hence a lot of testing has been undertaken these past months.

The above clip was sent to me last night, and it shows the RedShift MX doing its thing at a popular Bay Area motocross track, . “Hooks up like a four-stroke, but rides like a two-stroke,” and it looks that part while doing it, even on some of the bigger hits that would have taco’d the competition.

While that’s nice and all (I’m sure the Dirt & Rubber crew are salivating), the testing video we’re really interested in is the one after the jump. Now that’s a big hit.

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Bikes

Alta Motors and Logos Technologies Win Second DARPA Award for a 2WD Hybrid-Electric Military Motorcycle

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Eight months ago, we told you about a special project that Alta Motors (formerly named BRD Motorcycles) was working on with Logos Technologies.

The project was a hybrid-electric two-wheel drive motorcycle that US special forces would use. Now called the SilentHawk, Logos Technologies has received a second DARPA award to continue development of this unique motorcycle with Alta Motors.

The Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award from DARPA means that Logos and Alta motors can begin actually building the silent, yet easily refuelable, motorcycle to the weapons cache of the US military, which they proved in concept during Phase I.

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Bikes

2015 Alta RedShift SM — A SuMo Wrestler with Lights

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Like its off-roading counterpart, the Alta RedShift SM is built around the most powerful motor on the market, per pound (40hp coming from an 11 lbs motor), which is a proprietary design by Alta.

Building around that a proper supermoto package, complete with WP suspension and Brembo brakes, the Alta Motors crew hopes that it has built a supermoto that will blow away the competition on the track, whether it be another electric sumo, or a lites-class gas-powered machine.

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Bikes

2015 Alta RedShift MX – Lites, Camera, Action

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The now newly named Alta Motors is ready to announce its production machines for the 2015 model year, and first up is the company’s off-road model: the Alta RedShift MX. Designed to take on the toughest gas-powered lites-class motocross bikes on the track (250cc four-strokes), the RedShift MX boasts some impressive electric figures as well.

With 40hp on tap, from only 11 pounds of motor, the RedShift platform has the most powerful motor per pound, anywhere. Add that to the fact that Alta says the RedShift MX tips the scales at 251 lbs, though feels lighter once it’s underway — a known benefit of electric motorcycles.

Revving to 13,750 rpm from Alta’s proprietary motor, the RedShift MX is good for 2 hours of “recreational” riding. For riders that want to keep going longer, Alta has designed the battery pack to be swappable, in about 10-15 minutes with two sets of hands working. This also means that future battery pack upgrades will be available as new battery tech comes to market as well.

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News

BRD Motorcycles Is Now Alta Motors

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We generally try to avoid reprinting the press releases of companies. Call it spin control, call it journalistic integrity, call it an over-fascination in hearing ourselves type — it just isn’t something we’re keen to do.

Every now and then though, a company’s press release really is the most succinct and well-worded form of the information. As is the case with BRD Motorcycles, which is now known as Alta Motors.

We could wax on about the various branding strategies at work here, the importance of a company’s name, and how BRD’s recent $4.5 million Series A funding is surely to blame for all this…but instead, Alta Motors release just a basic honest answer to it all. Read it after the jump, and yes…the above image was included in the press release.

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