2019 ALTA REDSHIFT EXR
FIRST IMPRESSION
P96
off-grid as you wish. It also receives sig-
nificant power updates from the 2018 EX
off-road model and gets faster charging
and a lower price. If this was a gas bike
that'd be a win-win-win-win already.
Its gas-powered dual-sport counterparts
from KTM, Husqvarna and soon-to-be
Honda have been fueling a rare growing seg-
ment of motorcycle sales for a few years. It makes
sense for Alta to go here if their bike can go the
distance. In fact, it's a similar path the Austrian
and Japanese manufacturers take on their way to
consumers' garages: Build a race bike and race,
build a street-legal dirt bike that looks like the race
bike and ride. It works, and the bikes in this class
of dual-sport are quite literally all the rage these
days. Plus, they're also some of the best off-road
bikes ever produced. The competition is fierce.
The Alta Redshift EXR comes with high-quality
components familiar to Austrian bike owners. WP
Xplor forks replace arguably dismal 4CS units on
previous models and the brakes are the Brembo
kind. Already, this bike is much better equipped
than any other dual-sport electric motorcy-
cle in the history of my testing experience.
The new EXR also comes with Alta's
latest R-Pack battery system and the latest
software/firmware to pump out 50 coun-
tershaft-counted horsepower and over 40
lb-ft. of torque from a standstill. Those num-
bers impress. Charging time gets an upgrade over
previous packs with a 1.5-hour total charge time on
240v and around three hours on a standard 120v
United States-style house plug.
Alta keeps their
motorcycle
looking, well, like
motorcycles, but
you can certainly
tell that something
is different.
