VOL. 55 ISSUE 10 MARCH 13, 2018 P77
Adding
More Juice
More power, better suspension and a lower price tag,
but can it replace your gas-powered bike?
BY CYCLE NEWS STAFF
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT PALMER
I
s the future of motocross going to be powered by batteries?
If so, are we there yet? We got to spend a full day at the
motocross track riding the 2018 Alta Redshift MXR to try to
answer these questions.
As we reported in our first test of the 2017 Alta Redshift
MX last year, we came away impressed with the design, build
quality and performance. You can read that story by clicking
here. We also noted that electric powered cars have proven to
be among the quickest production cars available, so the tech-
nology is there but it is challenging to squeeze that down to fit
into a motorcycle. On the track and trails, the 2017 Redshift
MX had some advantages over a standard internal combus-
tion-powered motorcycle. The lack of a shifter allows you to
evenly weight both pegs and you don't have to worry about
being in the right gear or stalling the motor in tight and techni-
cal conditions. The motor is basically maintenance-free with
a 1000-hour maintenance cycle and you don't need to clean
air filters or change the oil. (You just might have to replace the
chain and sprockets every now and then.) The lack of sound
also opens a lot of riding options as the Alta can be ridden on
a backyard track without your neighbors even knowing.
But we also noted a few negatives: The 2017 Redshift MX
weighed in at 267 pounds, which is about 25-30 pound more
than a current 250 four-stroke MX bike. The power decreased
a little as soon as the battery dipped below 75%. The suspen-
sion was pretty soft and not up to aggressive motocross track
riding. It took almost three hours to re-charge a completely
depleted battery and perhaps the biggest negative was the
$14,995 price tag.
