Taking the Alta Motors Redshift MX Trail Riding

Right off the bat I left my always-present earplugs in my pocket. This electric motocrosser has chain and tire noise, a bit of gear noise, and a mild whine from its electric motor. So I thought I'd enjoy riding with the sounds of nature rather than obliterating them with the wondrous thump from our companion testbike, Yamaha's fantastic YZ250FX.

In terms of quietness, electric motorcycles do seem like magic. The Alta is also a vacation from the hassles of needing to keep an engine running with "technique" surrounding use of clutch and gears in tough terrain. There is but one gear on the Alta, and once the e-motor is on, it's always there for you. No clutch, no shift, no stall, no worry. Need to start on an ultra-steep incline? Electric makes it super easy to just feather in torque, and you can hear the tire breaking traction to help you control it.

Playing around off road, these qualities of the Redshift MX are pure magic. Add to this intuitive throttle control. In fact, it's better to call the "throttle" a nicely tuned torque rheostat—as much as you want, exactly how you want it.

And power from the Alta, with a mostly silent and definitely instant 120 pound-feet of torque and 40 hp from a standstill, is amazing. Doing U-turns for photo passes at the bottom of a running-stream-cut ravine was killer fun. I could roll a tight circle by whipping the bike over hard with steering to the stop and then could just churn the rear wheel while the bike essentially pivoted on the front. Want more wheelie? More roost? Turn the throttle more.

About those earplugs. In our first remote desert test location, it was necessary to run a 4,000-watt gasoline-powered generator with 220-volt output to recharge the bike. We had a rather loud Lifan unit that is sold new on a few online outlets for $630. In a mild moment of irony, I wore my earplugs while we were charging. “Mild” because the use of electric here is not so much of a save-the-world movement but rather a technical choice to achieve a high level of performance that’s also low maintenance and easy to ride for the above mentioned: no clutch, no shift, no stall.

The bike was really fun to ride on the trail, and the WP suspension is widely adjustable, so making a plush trail-ride setup was just a few clicks away from full moto attack as used by Grant Langston (see Grant Langston Rides The Alta Motors Redshift MX). Weight on the Cycle World scale was 267 pounds, and it rides lighter than that. The chassis is nimble without being twitchy.

But the real beauty of the riding execution here was the precision of power production that goes along with the sweet chassis. I could be almost as precise with a gasoline-powered bike using throttle and clutch, but it was easier to achieve higher precision and repeatable fluidity with the Alta electric.

Performance downsides are few. I personally would like to be able to adjust “engine” braking, since even in Map 4 (most aggressive power and deceleration drag) on steep downhills I wanted more drag. Perhaps an independent adjustment of engine-braking force outside of the provided four-map selection is in order? Add in a rear brake I found pretty easy to lock up, and I was least comfortable, but manageably so, on steep descents.

In terms of range, the bike was typically on pace to make about two hours of riding or roughly 40 miles having fun in hilly terrain and being pretty aggressive with power. The Redshift MX would demand an adjustment in my personal kind of off-roading since I value exploration and endur­ance-busting dawn-to-dusk adventures. But consider a typical trail scenario camping in your motorhome (which of course you already own) and that has an onboard, slide-out 6.5 kW generator ready to jam 220 volts into your bike while you eat a sandwich after a two-hour off-road loop. In practice, charging a fully depleted battery on 220 is about 2.5 hours (and some four hours on 110), though what I found was that I’d ride until about 30 or 40 percent and could get back to almost fully charged in about 45 minutes. I ended up riding shorter loops more often, so to speak.

There is no ignoring the $14,995 price. We are, however, talking about a hand-built, made-in-America motorcycle. Components are top quality, and construction is exquisite. Examining the aluminum frame’s lovely steering-head forgings and perfect welds is a good use of your precious moments on earth. The thing about the price, recharge time, and range is that these elements of electric transport have all improved dramatically over time.

The all-around high performance of this electric motorcycle is what sets it apart from other electrics and makes it, in riding, more than a match for an equivalent gasoline dirt bike. I’d be happy to buy a quiet generator so I could leave my earplugs at home.