Alta demo day at Tomahawk MX.

jtiger12
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1720
Joined
8/2/2006
Location
Forest H Ill, MD US
7/30/2018 6:41am
This will be another endorsement for the alta mxr. I wanted to share my experience as a somewhat skeptic of the bike beforehand. Flame me if you want, but they want people to talk about their product honestly, so here it goes.

I just happened to ride at tomahawk mx in West Virginia this weekend, due to budds getting rained on; JT motorsports was sponsoring an alta demo ride. Super cool of them to let me spin a second lap on the bike with my go pro on. I have a new crf450 that I'm still setting up for myself, but bone stock without setup I was about 10 seconds a lap slower on the Alta mxr. Im 6'2" and 227 lbs, so the suspension was WAY soft, and the bars are not good, maybe a cutdown will be a quick fix. It was by no means a great lap (2 laps total), but I gotta say I was thoroughly impressed with the alta mxr on powermode 4. With some seat time and setup, I think this bike would be great for practice riding and racing vet classes. I never checked that display panel on the track.

The good: everything you have already read from other reviews. It just pulls, and pulls up the hills. I could have cleared everything on the track with a couple more laps to get used to the bike, it was great on jumps out of tight turns. I didn't miss the clutch at all, you might not either if you are used to riding 450s. No engine braking when coasting, great for sections with chop and braking bumps. The balance is heavy on the front with that battery, I felt I did not need to slide forward as much on turns due to the front bias. The bike was stable at speed, and the chassis felt strong with my fat ass smashing into the ground. Superslim without all the extra stuff like pipes, radiators, and muffler(s). You can hear things on the track you never really paid much attention to, hello tire noise. Overall, it felt like riding a 125 chassis with a modded 250f motor, and brief moments of cr500 torque. Think about a brushless motor rc car flipping backwards at speed. There's alot of tuning potential if you can mod your own power curves.

The bad: nobody can hear you approaching them. Real bad when you are in mixed practice with mini bikes and c class riders. I had a moment on my first lap on the bike I wish I had the camera for. With this bike, you will spend a lot of time yelling yee yee at people to let them know you are there. Bike is still a little expensive for my budget. Bike: ~12k, quick charger: $800, generator: ~$4000 (for 240volt Honda, yes I know I could find a cheaper used loud ass gennie), 1000+ charge cycles, battery replacement costs ~$7k. (I dont know anything about the warranty, but I will be researching in the future). These are all numbers given to me by the JT guy.

IMHO: if they can find a way in the future to cut 20lbs and get 20 minutes more runtime, it's a buy for me. The economics of the battery could be an issue, but with the limited amount i get to ride anymore who knows?

No embed on phone.
https://youtu.be/618acpFHgY0
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yz133rider
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4454
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8/1/2013
Location
Avondale, PA US
7/30/2018 1:00pm
One thing ive seen with the demos is they let you take one lap. Nobody hops on a bike and can "go for it" with only one lap. Kinda a bummer with that i talked them into letting me take it a second time and for two laps the second time for a total of "gasp" 3 laps! By then starting to almost get a real feel for it but only 1 lap is not enough.

Bad ass bikes though! What impressed you the most? For me was how quickly I adjusted to no shifting, rpm sound etc. Judging jumps i thought was going to be so much tougher without engine/gear feedback etc.
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jtiger12
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1720
Joined
8/2/2006
Location
Forest H Ill, MD US
7/30/2018 1:13pm
Good question. I'd have to say it was the complete lack of engine braking and the transition from coasting to clearing jumps I was typically jumping in 3rd gear. Like you said, I expected difficulty adjusting to no noise/ gears/ clutch. It was not a factor

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