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He posted a photo on FACEBOOK of him with some dude sitting on an Alta, I commented, man I really want one of this Altas, he replied "the bike couldn't finish a race, the battery kept over heating"
WTF is that all about? Not heard any complaints about them so far, but he was there, he saw it.
Under continuous high power demand situations like a track with lots of hills and deep loom like Mammoth combined with an experienced (fast) rider, the individual cells within the battery pack can get quite hot. The onboard Battery Management System is responsible for making sure the cells can't get hot enough to damage themselves and will restrict current (power) if necessary. However, I don't think the bike would suddenly stop unless it was almost drained and the BMS determined further discharge would damage the cells.
On the other hand, if the battery was fully charged, the Moto a typical 20 minutes and the rider of non pro ability I'd be very disappointed as I own an Alta myself and would certainly expect it to finish with little if any power limiting. Personally, I've yet to experience any power limiting or lack of reasonable range for local Moto work. Of course, I've yet to ride my bike on a truly power demanding track like Glen Helen and frankly wouldn't be surprised if I got more than 15 minutes at full power on that kind of track.
If however, the bike is a factory Alta one off, it could have a special lightweight battery pack with fewer cells. In this case overheating is a real possibility as the remaining cells need to work a lot harder and individual cell temps can get into the danger zone. For safety sake, shutting things down makes sense.
The Shop
http://tandenews.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0d338dd4c4b0a62a2d2a…
Interesting is that it has both a Clutch and a Gearbox, which is a bit of a rarity, so far, with E Bikes.
Loan term: 5 yrs
Interest rate: 4.5%
Monthly payment: $279.65
Loan term: 5 yrs
Interest rate: 3%
Monthly payment: $270
Pretty good chunk of change
Pit Row
Cohocton MX on the Alta
Race report coming tomorrow.
My mate has been posting his honeymoon photos on FACEBOOK, I saw this and noticed the Alta but not Josh! Now I feel a fool! Hahahahahahahahahaha!!
My goals for the day were to survive the race (always a goal at 51 years old), to take note of how long a charge
lasted for my ~12 minute motos, and to see how different generators charged the Alta between the motos. And my new goals are to ride more on the balls of my feet, and to carry more momentum around the track and over jumps (thanks, TSmithMX!).
It was good to know these wind turbines were available for backup charging if my generators didn't work.
I had two generator to test, a newer Honda Generator-Inverter eu3000is model, borrowed from a friend, and an older Coleman Powermate 5000 that I bought 2 days ago for $200.
Generators
The Honda is 110v and whisper quiet. The Coleman Powermate is 110v and 220v, and it is loud. I went to Home
Depot the day before and bought the electrical hardware I needed to go from the 4-prong 220v outlet on the
Coleman Powermate generator to the 3-prong plug on the Alta charger, and it works fine.
It is kind of ironic; I have the quietest bike and the loudest generator at the track! I am going to look into
some ways to quiet the generator down.
Anyways, I signed up for +40 B and +50B, probably the two most competitive classes offered... or maybe at least in my mind.
My racing consisted of:
Am/expert practice. 3 laps.
Moto 1 +40B, 1 1/2 laps and I pulled off - I got a flat rear tire. Dammit!
Moto 2 +50B, 4 laps.
Moto 3 +40B, 4 laps.
Moto 4 +50B, 4 laps.
Each full length moto seemed to use about 1/3 of the battery, and it was no problem getting the Alta fully
charged between motos, and I am sure I could have done 2 motos between charging. And charging it on 220v is
waaaayyyy faster than 110v. It seemed to be more than twice as fast with 220v. It probably took me about ~30
minutes on the 220v generator to get back up to a full charge, which is no problem with all the waiting around
at a local motocross race.
I am still a huge fan of this thing, 221 miles and counting! And I might moto tonight, just because I can. Pretty sure my neighbors think I am really into RC cars, if they even hear me at all.
Ride, lube chain, charge. Repeat.
I rode for a little over 40 minutes straight, on map setting 2, and I used a little more than half of my battery life. I am coming to the conclusion that I like map 2 for my tight track, and I like map 3 for a faster more open track. I would probably only use map 1 on a tight slick track, or maybe single-track trails.
252.7 miles on the Alta and I am still loving this thing. I might have to get in another moto later this afternoon... just because I can!
some ways to quiet the generator down.
You could make the generator silent by turning it off and putting the gasoline into an ICE motorcycle. I do see the advantages like riding on your property is a major plus. Thanks you to the Alta owners posting pics and their stories.
I love the Cato NY track; it was soft in practice, but it firmed up as the day went on, and it got rutted up real nice. It is an old-school track with a lot of terrain changes and nice doable jumps... and no triples! I don't like triples. And the Alta is awesome in the rutted corners. The power is always the right amount and it is beyond smooth. I feel like I am faster through the corners. What is that saying again? Jump for show, corner for dough... or plastic trophies or cheap plaques in my case.
For this track, known as "The Fast Track", with ~2:30 lap times for me, I would use about a little less than half of my battery for each moto, which are supposed to be about 12 minutes long. This also includes riding to and from the start.
The Alta Redshift MX worked fantastic all day. I used my 220v generator between motos to keep it charged, and for the most part I had a full battery going into each moto, except for the last one, +50B. This was also where I had my best ride of the day earlier, where I got 3rd place in the first moto, out of 13 riders.
After my 5th moto, I put the Alta on the generator to charge, and then walked down to watch some racing. My second +50 moto was coming up, so I went back to my pits, and I realized that my generator had stopped because it had run out of gas! Dooohhhh! My battery was only charged to just less than half. I did some math in my head (those 7 years of collidge finally paid off!) and realized that it was going to be close as to whether or not I would make it through my last moto!
I lined up for the start, the board turned sideways, the gate dropped, and I wheelied, backed off, wheelied again, and then backed off, getting a sweet back of the pack start. I was feeling good and I worked my way up to 3rd, and started pressuring 2nd. And then on the last lap, the Alta went into conservation mode, but I still tried to work on the 2nd place guy, and I almost got him.
We came into the last section before the finish line, where you get a choice; you can go to the left which is a rough sand section, or to the right which is a longer smoother path. Both take about the same time to go through. The 2nd place guy went left, so I went right, and we came out of the section together, but he was about one wheel ahead, and I had to back off at the last minute. I thought about doing a pick-up pass ( where I take him out, and the first of us to pick up our bike and get going again makes the pass) but the self-preservation side of my brain, which gets larger as I get older, told ne to back off, so I did. I know I could have gotten 2nd if my bike was in full-power mode.
He went 4-2 for 2nd overall, and I went 3-3 for 3rd overall, the moto-math working in his favor. Oh well. I still won a sweet 3rd place plaque, and I made it back to my pits before my battery was completely gone.
All in all, I had a great day on the Alta, and here is a video my son put together from the day:
Note to self: Tell the boy to stop slowing the footage down!
Lastly, here is the long list of maintenance I had to do on the Alta Redshift MX on Monday:
1. Wash
2. Lube chain
So the answer to the question is, don't forget to put gas in the generator.
I see you standing almost everywhere, good job man. It's got to be hard not to blip the throttle on the line..
I suspect there is some Alta burnout (or jealousy) in Vital, but you have delivered the most real world experience to help people understand the bike. Thanks for taking the time.
In the news today, Volvo is announcing no further internal combustion engine development budget. As of 2019 they expect to be only developing electric.
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