The Future is Here; The Best Electric Motorcycle I Have Ridden

[Yakoo752]

I wonder if you could bring along a sort of Tesla Powerwall, a bigass battery, and charge during lunch?

only if supercharging is an option, otherwise the time to charge is just too much

tesla's powerwall is rated to 6.4kwh, redshift MX is 5.6kwh. It would work but I would want to refresh 2 batteries overnight while I slept... so I would want a larger powerwall that isn't offered. Too bad they killed off the 10kwh model

 

[ctrvl]

Urban mx parks could actually be a thing someday.

Haha that's something my wife and I have been talking about with regard to electric MX bikes. Anyone want in on buying some property in the Brisbane area?

 

[RDT]

Rip you say?

F**kin right! Just out for a rip

 

[Smash Allen]

Haha that's something my wife and I have been talking about with regard to electric MX bikes. Anyone want in on buying some property in the Brisbane area?

Let's do it. There is a landfill in Martinez that would also be a good location.

Get sponsored by electric mx companies and provide bikes for people to ride similar to feel like a pro dirt with training optional or just free ride.

F**kin right! Just out for a rip

just feedin' 'em the left 'n right

 

[ctrvl]

Let's do it. There is a landfill in Martinez that would also be a good location.

Get sponsored by electric mx companies and provide bikes for people to ride similar to feel like a pro dirt with training optional or just free ride.



just feedin' 'em the left 'n right

Ack, was hoping for one super close to SF - every track, dirt or otherwise, that I go to is like minimum 1.5 hours away right now, which makes me full of sad and encourages me to do stupid urban hooligan crap looooooool

 

[m0t0_ryder]

Its only a matter of time until someone adds a speaker system to mimic ICE.

Already been done.
A Zero owner in Los Altos Hills added speakers. He has selectable tones he can play. Harley. 2 Stroke. X-Wing Fighter.

I've ridden the Zero DS and FX at Carnegie.
The DS was a handful (but handled it). The FX was fun.

I'm sure the Alta would be good fun in the dirt too.

 

[Smash Allen]

Ack, was hoping for one super close to SF - every track, dirt or otherwise, that I go to is like minimum 1.5 hours away right now, which makes me full of sad and encourages me to do stupid urban hooligan crap looooooool

That's a good point.

Those dirtbike gangs would be fast as fck MX racers. I wonder if lowering the barrier to enter racing by bringing tracks closer to urban areas would increase the talent pool of american racers in both dirt and track settings

EDIT: Not that you are in a dirtbike gang of course

 

[badjoojoo]

Thanks for the write-up. Now, whose balls do I have to fondle to get a test ride myself?

 

[ohio]

Hey all, Marc from Alta here. Butch and I had been emailing, so I hope you don't mind me chiming in.

Really glad we were able to get you on the bike, Butch, and even more glad that you liked it. We've had pretty much universally the same experience with everyone we've put on the bike - it makes trail riding ridiculously fun, even in shit conditions, whether pro or novice.

To answer some quick questions from above, a full charge (5.8kWh) is about 5 hours from a 110 (1500W) or 2.5 from a 220 (3000W). We find that what happens is we ride for an hour, stop for water/snack, throw in the charger, repeat, and never get close to draining it in a day of trail riding. That doesn't work so well for places like Stoneyford though, so if long days are your thing (vs loops) it's probably not your bike, or not your only bike. Easy way to figure it out is, if you need an aftermarket tank on your gas bike, the Redshift is not going to replace it.

On swapping, yes, we built the pack to be swappable, however, we pretty quickly found that nearly everyone is WAY better off spending their money on a generator with 220/15A (or more) rather than a spare pack. The pack weighs 70lbs, so it's a chore to remove in the dirt, even if mechanically it's pretty straightforward.

Range off road really depends on your riding style, and comes down to how much power you're putting to the ground. It's kind of equivalent to 1.5 gallons of gas, but we get some real advantages where a gas bike would be idling or spinning the wheel and we don't burn that energy. So dunes are basically the worst, and super technical trails are the best, relative to the range you get from a gas tank. We call it 2 hours of trail, an hour on the MX track, or 30 minutes of pro-level MX, but as you can see above Butch got 3 hours and had some range left.

@badjoojoo, there'll be an Redshift SM demo at Alta SF (aka BMW MC of SF) around the end of this month. Beyond that, your best bet is to make friends with an early customer like Butch here did. Also shameless plug, but I swear it's in your best interest - the deposits are only $100 and fully refundable to secure your spot in line, and Butch is right, the current backlog means the next depositors will probably get a bike in the Fall.

 

[Zerox]

So freaky to look at a motorcycle with no exhaust pipe. Good times ahead.

 

[ThumperX]

Hey Butch, THANK you for this thread!!!
Hey Marc, overtime my SO and I go trail riding we talk about electrics. Currently they are way way out of our price range.Do you force prices dropping as the bikes become more popular?

Thank you for being involved in this arty

 

[ohio]

Hey Butch, THANK you for this thread!!!
Hey Marc, overtime my SO and I go trail riding we talk about electrics. Currently they are way way out of our price range.Do you force prices dropping as the bikes become more popular?

Thank you for being involved in this arty

Unfortunately, we don't see the prices dropping that much. A lot of the last 2 years was spent making sure we could sustainably hit the price that we did. The tech in there is a few generations ahead of Tesla so it's kind of a bargain... kind of.

The upside is that there's no maintenance. It doesn't reduce the sticker shock, but for someone that does their own oil and air filters, but not their own top ends and rebuilds, they'll break even vs a gas MXer at about 100 hours (2nd rebuild), and everything after that is gravy. Not to mention all of the time spent riding instead of wrenching.

We have units in our test fleet with over 100 hours and they haven't degraded a bit. Can't say the same for my KTM...

 

[ThumperX]

Unfortunately, we don't see the prices dropping that much. A lot of the last 2 years was spent making sure we could sustainably hit the price that we did. The tech in there is a few generations ahead of Tesla so it's kind of a bargain... kind of.

The upside is that there's no maintenance. It doesn't reduce the sticker shock, but for someone that does their own oil and air filters, but not their own top ends and rebuilds, they'll break even vs a gas MXer at about 100 hours (2nd rebuild), and everything after that is gravy. Not to mention all of the time spent riding instead of wrenching.

We have units in our test fleet with over 100 hours and they haven't degraded a bit. Can't say the same for my KTM...

This is how we have been talking ourselves into them. I'm asking you these questions if it's a pain I can look it up.

Are there currently any incentives for electric trail bikes? I know that if you buy an electric care there are all sorts of tax credits and rebates.

 

[ohio]

This is how we have been talking ourselves into them. I'm asking you these questions if it's a pain I can look it up.

Are there currently any incentives for electric trail bikes? I know that if you buy an electric care there are all sorts of tax credits and rebates.

There are rebates for plated electric motorcycles so the Redshift SM gets $1500 back from the Feds and $900 back from CA, but the MX does not. To ask the obvious follow on question - what about a dual sport? - yup, we realize that makes sense, but can only do so much at once. The MX and SM were where we felt like we could provide the biggest benefits or value prop over gas at first. There's definitely a lot more we can do with our tech in the future.

 

[byke]

Sounds like the sm may be the way to go even if you want an mx. Even with the extra cost of the sm, the rebates would probably cover mx wheels/suspension and you'd have both setups for no extra cost, depending on what the parts are. Looks like a wp shock with showa forks..? Front wheel honda and rear ktm?

 

[ohio]

Sounds like the sm may be the way to go even if you want an mx. Even with the extra cost of the sm, the rebates would probably cover mx wheels/suspension and you'd have both setups for no extra cost, depending on what the parts are. Looks like a wp shock with showa forks..? Front wheel honda and rear ktm?

WP front and rear, and you'd want both from the MX for the valving, the ride height, and the brake caliper (SM runs a radial mount 4 piston).

Front hub is unique to us, as we run a wider leg spacing than KTM in order to clear the 4-piston Brembo using the same hub on all bikes.

 

[byke]

Ahhh. What other models use those forks? I didn't think wp did that two-step deal at the seal.

 

[ohio]

Ahhh. What other models use those forks? I didn't think wp did that two-step deal at the seal.

It's the 4CS cartridge fork which was on most or all of the KTM SX models until they went to the AER (air) forks. We still prefer the springs. Springs and valving are custom to us, and (obviously biased) with our setup they are the best WP forks I've ever felt.

 

[byke]

Right on. Not really a huge fan of the failure mode of air forks anyway. Spring/oil usually just weep and you can still finish the day, air forks not so much. And, though extremely unlikely, bad timing of an air fork failure could be ugly.

Are you guys going to do a pay/ride deal out at Argyll? Thought I recalled something about that..

 

[Lunch Box]

I'm so jealous that you got to ride one of those. I would buy one in a heartbeat if I had the cash to justify buying an expensive toy. I'll definitely have an e-bike in my stable soon. Well, in the next few years, at least.