When I was a child, riding
my bicycle up the steepest hills I could find, I would imagine a burbling
v-twin between my feet to whisk me to the top. Once gravity got the best of me,
I’d begin my return descent. In my mind, I had the fastest bike in the
neighborhood, capable of taking on any Harley or Ducati that came in my path.
I should have dreamed
bigger.
Alta Motors created a line
of motorcycles that includes everything on my adolescent wish list—then they
electrified it—meaning I can zoom past anything on wheels without burning a
drop of gasoline.
How? It all starts with a
passion for speed.
“Our
goal is to create motorcycles that are easier to ride fast than anything else
out there,” says Alta Motors on their website. “We build electric bikes because
we love instant throttle response and flat, endless torque. Because we want the
next bike we purchase to be faster than our last one.”
The
company’s first sketches of an electric motorcycle began in 2007. Two friends,
Derek Dorresteyn and Jeff Sand, began talking about a bike with a smooth,
perfectly responsive torque curve.
With
a few years of design, engineering and fabrication expertise under their
leather jackets, they embarked on producing the Redshift MX—a motocross bike built
specifically for 30-minute races.
Next,
they rolled out a street-legal version of the Redshift, called the
Redshift SM—better suited for weekend rides and commutes (Read: smoking the
competition).
With a full-time staff of 50 employees, Alta Motors makes all the
electronics and battery packaging for their bikes. Battery cells, wheels,
tires, brakes and suspension systems are supplied by outside companies.
But
why build these speed machines out of their own factory in northern California
when they can outsource to other markets better known for motorcycle
manufacturing?
CEO and co-founder of Alta Motors, Marc Fenigstein, says, “Everything
we’ve done in-house we’ve been able to do faster, cheaper and at higher output
than outsourced.”
All electric. All American. Sign us up!
The best part (and our
favorite bit of news)—you can experience Alta Motors first-hand at American Field San
Francisco on October 8-9.
Sources:
https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/15/a-first-look-at-alta-motors-all-electric-motorcycle-factory/
