Alta Motors:
We love motorcycles. The best ones make you tingle when you look at them, giggle when you ride them, and even scare you just a little bit. We love going fast. And we love finding new ways and new places to go fast. Our goal is to create motorcycles that are easier to ride fast than anything else out there. We build electric bikes because we love instant throttle response and flat, endless torque. Because we want the next bike we purchase to be faster than our last one.
The first sketches of the Redshift began in San Francisco in 2007. Two riding buddies, Derek Dorresteyn and Jeff Sand, with a few decades of fabrication, engineering and design expertise between the both of them, fell in love with the idea of the smooth, perfectly responsive torque curve. Naturally, they started kicking around the possibilities for building their own electric motorcycle— a motorcycle that could be faster and more rideable than their gas bikes.
Redshift SM
The Redshift SM is a race supermoto without the incessant oil changes and maintenance. Street legal with off-road roots, it’s a potent motorcycle when the city streets are less than ideal. Commute, race, and run errands on the Redshift SM.
Mile for mile, there is no smaller, more compact, energy dense battery pack in transportation. The Alta Pack is waterproof rated up to IP67, is durable enough to handle shocks and vibes up to 20G, and is digitally self-monitoring. Our stacked honeycomb architecture allows for extreme energy density at 185 watt hours per kilogram, combined with a unique thermal wicking system to shed heat faster than any other lithium-ion transportation battery in production.
The motor
Alta’s water-cooled 14,000 RPM motor is pound for pound one of the most powerful in motorsports. It is optimized to the narrow width of the Redshift’s bulkhead and is precisely located at the roll center of the bike. This placement allows for the lowest polar moment of inertia in motorcycling – drastically minimizing any gyroscopic impediment to handling. The Redshift’s motor weighs 15lbs and puts out 40hp and 36 ft-lbs of torque. The unit pushes power through a 3.5:1 gear reduction to deliver a 122 ft-lbs of torque at the counter shaft from a dead stop and 0 RPM.
Redshift Bulkhead
The Redshift Bulkhead—the chassis core—functions as the outer motor casing, the cooling circuit for the motor and inverter, as well as the transmission case for the gear reduction. Additionally, it is the main structural hub, connecting to the rear suspension, the airframe, the forged monocoque chassis, and the trellis skidframe. All of this integration is coordinated with very specific strength, weight, and stiffness goals to produce the right ride and compliance characteristics at all lean angles, and under impact.
Suspension
WP is the largest motorcycle suspension producer in Europe, and we chose their product for the Redshift due to their technical prowess and ease of tuning. WP competes globally at the highest levels of competition and that expertise combined with their willingness to try new things has resulted in both the Redshift MX and SM using WP 4CS suspension built to our own spec as developed by the team here at Alta Motors.
Brakes
Brembo S.P.A. is the gold standard for high performance brake systems on motorcycles. Founded in 1961, the Italian company produces a range of products that can be found on motorcycles on the street and the trail. Both the Redshift MX and Redshift SM use cast and machined Brembo calipers in either a 2 or 4 piston set-up.
Wheels & tyres
Warp 9 Racing is a relatively young company based in the US. In a short amount of time Warp 9 Racing has gone from an outlier to a company now providing wheels for OEMs and competing at a professional level against other more established brands. We chose to work with Warp 9 Racing due to the fact that their wheels are produced here in the US, and that their exacting demands for quality align with ours.
Specifications
DRIVETRAIN
- MOTOR: High Speed PMAC
- TORQUE: 120 ft-lbs
- POWER: 40 HP
- TRANSMISSION: 1 Speed
- ELECTRONICS: Alta-Digital, 4 Maps
- GEAR RATIO: 3.5 : 1
- TOP SPEED: 80 MPH
BATTERY
- TYPE: Waterproof Li-Ion 350v
- CAPACITY: 5.8kWh
- DURATION: 50 Mile Mix – City & HWY
- LIFECYCLE: 25,000 Miles
- CHARGER: Onboard
- STARTER: 3-step Sequence with Key
- RECHARGE TIME: 4 hrs (240v) | 6 hrs (120v)
COMPONENTS
- FRONT FORK: WP SMR
- REAR SHOCK: WP 5018-Link
- FRONT BRAKE: Brembo Four Piston | 320mm Rotor
- REAR BRAKE: Brembo Single Piston | 240mm Rotor
- WHEELS: Warp 9 | 17″F / 17″R
- TIRES Pirelli Rosso II
SPECIFICATIONS
- FRAME: Forged & Welded Aluminum
- SWINGARM: Permanent Mold Casting | Aluminum
- WEIGHT: 270 lbs(Race) | 275 lbs(Street)
- WHEELBASE: 57.3″
- SEAT HEIGHT: 35.5″
- RAKE: 22°
- TRAIL: Adjustable Offset
Source & pictures: Alta Motors
