Z3n
Squid.
So! Butch was kind enough to volunteer his Alta for a quick test ride. I'm still nursing a somewhat busted wrist, so I didn't get a chance to put that many miles on it without potentially extending my recovery time (deep appreciation to Butch for his patience and showing up to only ride a short loop with me - hopefully he got some good riding in).
For reference on skill levels, I'm a long term street/track/supermoto guy, who's recently re-acquired a dirt habit. I rode the SM, but never got thoughts on paper on that, so I'm gonna steal his thread a bit to write the review of that and then my experiences on his MX version.
I snagged the test bike at SF BMW a couple of months back, and they turned me loose on it for awhile. I've got some experience with the Brammo, so electrics aren't totally new to me, and after a quick familiarization with the (very basic) controls, off I went. They mentioned that the 1 map was sedate, map 2 was street, and the 3/4 maps were for "closed course use". I rolled away in map 1, and immediately kicked it into map 2, which made it respond about how I wanted to familiarize myself.
Initial impressions were - it's got that consistent, smooth thrust to it that is a staple of electric bikes, and the brakes and suspension are very well set up and balanced to the throttle. A lot of supermotos feel excessively twitchy and very sharp (looking at you, early 690 SMCs). Those bikes only work when they're being pushed, and pushed hard, and anything less than that and you can tell the bike is never in the sweet spot of performance. The Alta, on the flip side, is confidence inspiring and rewarding to ride at just about any pace. I couldn't get completely insane on it and get it sliding around on the street (also, the warning about how the bike is literally priceless and my own experiments with prototype parts kept me in line - wouldn't do to wreck their demo!), but from doing slow speed trackstands all the way up to some quick cornering towards Twin Peaks there, the bike gave excellent feedback and was very confidence inspiring.
I made it approximately 5 blocks before someone rolled up next to me, asked if it was an electric (yes), and then asked the obligatory question..."Does it wheelie?"
I, of course, demurred and said I would never do something as irresponsible as a wheelie on a demo bike. That would be rude, and after that point I rode the Alta to my local gym for a quick workout, had a balanced meal, and returned the bike without doing anything untoward at all.
(SF BMW and Alta staff please skip the rest of this review the bike is lovely and this is just a lot of words that don't say much)
Ahem: The only appropriate response when someone asks you if it wheelies is "lets find out!".
So I kicked it into map 3, got it rolling to about 10mph, and then bounced it up with a combo of throttle and body weight, riding a very comfortable, composed wheelie for longer than the local constabulary may appreciate. The nice thing about wheelies on electric bikes is the transition from on throttle to off throttle is nearly undetectable, so it's very easy to hold at the balance point. The other thing that's interesting about wheelies on different bikes is depending on the motorcycle and how the weight is established, you'll end up with vastly different characteristics when you're up on one - I found that a Daytona 675 at balance point is one of the more terrifying experiences of my moto life, but something like a 1290 SuperDuke / most dirtbikes are very comfortable at balance point, as that's in the realm of normal usage for those motorcycles.
The Alta very pleasantly allows for controlled wheelies at just about any speed. The only minor (and understandable) fly in the ointment is that at below about 10mph even in mode 4, power delivery is dialed back so far that you can hammer the throttle open and it doesn't give you enough to actually get the front wheel off the ground without some significant body english. I understand why they do this, as you don't want folks looping their bikes from a standing start, but considering one of the fun games of wheelies is trying to lift the front from a standing start, it does take a bit of the fun out of it. It might be possible with some real extreme body english and bouncing the bike up, but see above caveats about demo bikes and prototypes.
Without getting too incriminating, I can say that my test ride regimen of the usual supermoto activities showed that the Alta was capable at anything and everything I could ask of it, from jumps, to lanesplitting, to showing impressionable youths why supermotos are tools of the devil (at least in the eyes of their parents). After about an hour of riding around, I returned it with a large chunk of battery left, as low speed hooligan antics return an absolutely massive number of smiles per electron.
If I were doing a commute from Oakland to SF, rather than my current run to the peninsula, this thing would be an awesome daily commuter (ideally after they added ABS). It would also be choice for any sort of urban hooligan activity, as it's quiet and unobtrusive, and would make for a great urban toy, go find novel things to jump off of.
The downsides to the bike? Well, you can't really back it in, as without an engine spinning, you'd have to back it in on the power rather than using engine braking to slow it down. Besides that, it's like all the best electric motorcycles - a great motorcycle that stands on its own - it just happens to be powered by electricity rather than gasoline.
On to the MX model:
Butch turned me loose on his bike after a quick warmup loop at Carnegie, and I immediately found myself at home on the MX version. Dirt bikes that you can't stall are pretty magical, and the smooth, consistent throttle without any vibration or noise makes it easy to feel out traction and get moving even in circumstances that'd normally cause fits.
I found that being offroad and away from the urban environment where I'd test rode the SM model, one of the most compelling features was actually that it was nearly completely quiet. Not only could I hear the wheels rolling and the chain, it also allowed me to hear when it was breaking traction as the noise from the tires changed. My 450, despite being stock and not loud at all, was downright obnoxious compared to the Alta.
The chassis was composed and confidence inspiring, just like the supermoto, even when I was doing dumb things like getting off line or hammering through some nasty washboard. I did notice some interesting, different behaviors out of it - coming off the top of whoops, the rear wheel felt like it'd spin up really quickly, and I found that I had some difficulty getting comfortable with really hammering through the nasty sections, as the bike would start really moving around off the top of small jumps. My guess is this is one of those situations where having the gyroscopic effect of an ICE helps keeps things more in line when you're trying to float over obstacles, and some quality time getting comfortable with how much the bike gets out of line and how it recovers would help me normalize to this. My bike also has a Scotts, and I'm pretty used to having that help keep things in line, so I'd imagine that contributes as well.
The other thing I noted while chasing my 450 down was that the Alta would come off the corners with some real authority. If I got into the throttle, it was possible to get it to hook and launch off the corners without even trying, and in low speed corners, I could easily dip the bike and hammer the throttle without having to worry about stalling or modulating the clutch, making it significantly easier to focus on drive, line, and corner exit. For the few times I caught any large amount of air, it was very controllable in the air and would come off the jumps without kicking or going nose down. For a "250 equivalent" bike, the electric really allows you to exploit traction and cornerspeed in a way that was like cheating relative to riding an ICE bike.
After we took the first loop, Butch said I should flip it into 4 - from there, the bike ups the throttle response and power significantly, and after some quick fire road sliding, we headed back to the trucks, and I managed to discover that yes, the MX bike does very nice, clean balance point wheelies just like the SM model does.
My thoughts on this when it is all said and done? Electrics are likely the future for a large chunk of offroad motorcycling. If you get rid of the noise and most of the contamination concerns of offroad motorcycling, they should become much more palatable to the general public and we should have access to significantly more offroad areas to play. Alta is leading the pack with the quality and performance of their overall package and in a couple of years I think it'll be a no brainer to have an electric dirtbike. We're hitting the cusp of an electric being all day capable bike for more casual riders like myself, and it would be amazing to have more urban offroad tracks show up thanks to the lack of noise pollution / environmental concerns. I'm gonna have to see if I can get Butch to let me take a run on it again when I'm all healed up to get some time on it in the more technical singletrack type stuff, as there's a lot of lower speed stuff that I'd like to experiment with in the future.
For reference on skill levels, I'm a long term street/track/supermoto guy, who's recently re-acquired a dirt habit. I rode the SM, but never got thoughts on paper on that, so I'm gonna steal his thread a bit to write the review of that and then my experiences on his MX version.
I snagged the test bike at SF BMW a couple of months back, and they turned me loose on it for awhile. I've got some experience with the Brammo, so electrics aren't totally new to me, and after a quick familiarization with the (very basic) controls, off I went. They mentioned that the 1 map was sedate, map 2 was street, and the 3/4 maps were for "closed course use". I rolled away in map 1, and immediately kicked it into map 2, which made it respond about how I wanted to familiarize myself.
Initial impressions were - it's got that consistent, smooth thrust to it that is a staple of electric bikes, and the brakes and suspension are very well set up and balanced to the throttle. A lot of supermotos feel excessively twitchy and very sharp (looking at you, early 690 SMCs). Those bikes only work when they're being pushed, and pushed hard, and anything less than that and you can tell the bike is never in the sweet spot of performance. The Alta, on the flip side, is confidence inspiring and rewarding to ride at just about any pace. I couldn't get completely insane on it and get it sliding around on the street (also, the warning about how the bike is literally priceless and my own experiments with prototype parts kept me in line - wouldn't do to wreck their demo!), but from doing slow speed trackstands all the way up to some quick cornering towards Twin Peaks there, the bike gave excellent feedback and was very confidence inspiring.
I made it approximately 5 blocks before someone rolled up next to me, asked if it was an electric (yes), and then asked the obligatory question..."Does it wheelie?"
I, of course, demurred and said I would never do something as irresponsible as a wheelie on a demo bike. That would be rude, and after that point I rode the Alta to my local gym for a quick workout, had a balanced meal, and returned the bike without doing anything untoward at all.
(SF BMW and Alta staff please skip the rest of this review the bike is lovely and this is just a lot of words that don't say much)
Ahem: The only appropriate response when someone asks you if it wheelies is "lets find out!".
So I kicked it into map 3, got it rolling to about 10mph, and then bounced it up with a combo of throttle and body weight, riding a very comfortable, composed wheelie for longer than the local constabulary may appreciate. The nice thing about wheelies on electric bikes is the transition from on throttle to off throttle is nearly undetectable, so it's very easy to hold at the balance point. The other thing that's interesting about wheelies on different bikes is depending on the motorcycle and how the weight is established, you'll end up with vastly different characteristics when you're up on one - I found that a Daytona 675 at balance point is one of the more terrifying experiences of my moto life, but something like a 1290 SuperDuke / most dirtbikes are very comfortable at balance point, as that's in the realm of normal usage for those motorcycles.
The Alta very pleasantly allows for controlled wheelies at just about any speed. The only minor (and understandable) fly in the ointment is that at below about 10mph even in mode 4, power delivery is dialed back so far that you can hammer the throttle open and it doesn't give you enough to actually get the front wheel off the ground without some significant body english. I understand why they do this, as you don't want folks looping their bikes from a standing start, but considering one of the fun games of wheelies is trying to lift the front from a standing start, it does take a bit of the fun out of it. It might be possible with some real extreme body english and bouncing the bike up, but see above caveats about demo bikes and prototypes.
Without getting too incriminating, I can say that my test ride regimen of the usual supermoto activities showed that the Alta was capable at anything and everything I could ask of it, from jumps, to lanesplitting, to showing impressionable youths why supermotos are tools of the devil (at least in the eyes of their parents). After about an hour of riding around, I returned it with a large chunk of battery left, as low speed hooligan antics return an absolutely massive number of smiles per electron.
If I were doing a commute from Oakland to SF, rather than my current run to the peninsula, this thing would be an awesome daily commuter (ideally after they added ABS). It would also be choice for any sort of urban hooligan activity, as it's quiet and unobtrusive, and would make for a great urban toy, go find novel things to jump off of.
The downsides to the bike? Well, you can't really back it in, as without an engine spinning, you'd have to back it in on the power rather than using engine braking to slow it down. Besides that, it's like all the best electric motorcycles - a great motorcycle that stands on its own - it just happens to be powered by electricity rather than gasoline.
On to the MX model:
Butch turned me loose on his bike after a quick warmup loop at Carnegie, and I immediately found myself at home on the MX version. Dirt bikes that you can't stall are pretty magical, and the smooth, consistent throttle without any vibration or noise makes it easy to feel out traction and get moving even in circumstances that'd normally cause fits.
I found that being offroad and away from the urban environment where I'd test rode the SM model, one of the most compelling features was actually that it was nearly completely quiet. Not only could I hear the wheels rolling and the chain, it also allowed me to hear when it was breaking traction as the noise from the tires changed. My 450, despite being stock and not loud at all, was downright obnoxious compared to the Alta.
The chassis was composed and confidence inspiring, just like the supermoto, even when I was doing dumb things like getting off line or hammering through some nasty washboard. I did notice some interesting, different behaviors out of it - coming off the top of whoops, the rear wheel felt like it'd spin up really quickly, and I found that I had some difficulty getting comfortable with really hammering through the nasty sections, as the bike would start really moving around off the top of small jumps. My guess is this is one of those situations where having the gyroscopic effect of an ICE helps keeps things more in line when you're trying to float over obstacles, and some quality time getting comfortable with how much the bike gets out of line and how it recovers would help me normalize to this. My bike also has a Scotts, and I'm pretty used to having that help keep things in line, so I'd imagine that contributes as well.
The other thing I noted while chasing my 450 down was that the Alta would come off the corners with some real authority. If I got into the throttle, it was possible to get it to hook and launch off the corners without even trying, and in low speed corners, I could easily dip the bike and hammer the throttle without having to worry about stalling or modulating the clutch, making it significantly easier to focus on drive, line, and corner exit. For the few times I caught any large amount of air, it was very controllable in the air and would come off the jumps without kicking or going nose down. For a "250 equivalent" bike, the electric really allows you to exploit traction and cornerspeed in a way that was like cheating relative to riding an ICE bike.
After we took the first loop, Butch said I should flip it into 4 - from there, the bike ups the throttle response and power significantly, and after some quick fire road sliding, we headed back to the trucks, and I managed to discover that yes, the MX bike does very nice, clean balance point wheelies just like the SM model does.
My thoughts on this when it is all said and done? Electrics are likely the future for a large chunk of offroad motorcycling. If you get rid of the noise and most of the contamination concerns of offroad motorcycling, they should become much more palatable to the general public and we should have access to significantly more offroad areas to play. Alta is leading the pack with the quality and performance of their overall package and in a couple of years I think it'll be a no brainer to have an electric dirtbike. We're hitting the cusp of an electric being all day capable bike for more casual riders like myself, and it would be amazing to have more urban offroad tracks show up thanks to the lack of noise pollution / environmental concerns. I'm gonna have to see if I can get Butch to let me take a run on it again when I'm all healed up to get some time on it in the more technical singletrack type stuff, as there's a lot of lower speed stuff that I'd like to experiment with in the future.
