Posts
134
Joined
1/4/2014
Location
East Hampton, CT
US
Edited Date/Time
6/1/2020 6:43pm
I found this to be a very interesting interview with Marc Fenigstein, one of the co-founders of Alta. He shared some stories from the beginning of the company and some failures/ experiences they had. Unfortunately he couldn’t go into details about why the company abruptly closed doors but I still thought it was interesting.
I really wish Alta was still around today. I never got to ride one of those bikes, and I’ve never ridden an electric bike but I would love to and I think they have a place in the Moto and off-road world.
I really wish Alta was still around today. I never got to ride one of those bikes, and I’ve never ridden an electric bike but I would love to and I think they have a place in the Moto and off-road world.
The Shop
Google trade secret theft or look at the lawsuit against anthony levandowski
The guy you cited literally stole something confidential and sold it, which is apples and oranges.
https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/white-collar-crime/piracy-ip-theft
sure—but you didn't propose that, you said ip theft.
> If ALTA didn't protect itself in the agreement they may have left themselves exposed
if alta raised more than $40m, they have themselves and many others with a vested interested and obligation to see to that.
- Alta had 300+ back orders at the time of closing. Meaning they couldn't make bikes fast enough.
- H-D gets called out as the big bad in this all the time but that isn't the case
- Alta bikes are awesome. I hopped on our MX bike this past weekend at the track (it's been a minute) and had a blast. Going from a TC125 two stroke to a Alta MX was a trip! Both super fun. Folks that bag on electric MX bikes I've found haven't actually ridden one. Not saying you'd convert 100% but saying they are 'fake bikes' is just wrong. I ride both MX and offroad (we have an EX also) on ours and those bikes were ahead of their time.
This quote comes to mind when thinking of Alta.... "Pioneers get the arrows. Settlers get the gold."
I got a gay friend who always tells me the same thing about guys.
Still not willing to try.
The KTM Freeride seems like a beefed up trials bike, meant for trails only. Expensive bike to buy and not be pretty sure you’ll like it.
He gave me an over view of what happened. I don't call all the details but the short story from connecting the dots is a classic start up tail where mistakes were made. Heck, TESLA should revive it and sell through their dealer network.
You simply can't sell something as niche as an electric dirt bike using the hipster Facebook/Twitter/Nothing SF business model of paying everyone way too much and company subsidized hair gel, sushi and yoga mats. You just can't create a business which so grossly exceeds the product, exactly why hot dog cart dudes work out of their cart, because that setup matches the product in a profitable manner.
I get that they felt like they needed the best people and it unquestionably helped development, but that doesn't work for modern day manufacturing of low volume niche products.
Pit Row
The phrase used a couple of times 'the rug pulled out from under us' is interesting.
By his own description, Alta was almost always on the ragged edge of failure.
His explanation they didn't let their team know they were so financially shaky for years. emphasizes why it shouldn't have been a surprise when and why investors stopped putting money in.
I don’t know if it was the crash (hurt shoulder) or the bike work so well that he retired the next weekend.
I’am going with the bike was so good he realized his factory bike was junk. LOL.
Sounds like Majkrzak, (Geico) not team Honda.
LaRacco was manager then.
KW has said many times he lost the will to risk it, so he quit
People with land would also question their $10k+ Specialized E-bike purchase, if there was an MX equivalent that had a similar price.
https://www.specialized.com/us/en/s-works-turbo-levo-sl-founders-editio…
Loved the bike, the company and the people. Its really, really hard to make money selling just a dirt bike. An electric dirt bike at that, and one made in Silicon Valley, with an all star line up of staff. In fact, I group of engineers left Telsa and joined Alta to develop the battery technology.
Harley was not the demise of Alta and did not end up with the IP. BRP came in after Alta shut down and ended up with the IP of the battery technology. Several months later they introduced several electric prototypes. None of them a dirt bike.
My only regret was I didn't keep at least one of my 5 demo's! Loved my 2018 MXR the most. Holeshot 6 motocross moto's on it and ended up with 4 wins and 2 seconds.
Did hundreds of demos. Not once did a rider come off the bike without a huge smile. The faster the rider the more they liked it. Pro's would jump on it and immediately start shredding.
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