Alta MX Electric

[ButchtheBARFdude]

100% hp and torque at zero rpm is pretty awesome. Never stall. Not a thumper at all. Kinda exotic

[ButchtheBARFdude]

Easier to clean than an ICE bike

[S.O.A.N.Z]

Can you control the torque - or is it just an on-off switch like RC cars ?

There would be certain situations where you wouldnt want 100% hp & torque at idle

[ButchtheBARFdude]

4 hours ago, S.O.A.N.Z said:

Can you control the torque - or is it just an on-off switch like RC cars ?

There would be certain situations where you wouldnt want 100% hp & torque at idle

Besides having four response maps (like different flywheel weight) the throttle has really good modulation. You can feed in exactly what you need. It is way easier to control than a gas bike.

I rode a Lightning last week. It was also awesome.

[SPLATT]

I really want one of these in addition to my current bike. Having been in the r/c car hobby and seeing what is possible with batteries, motors and speed controls I'm curious to see what's coming. It would be really cool to be able to adjust the speed control through a smart phone app.

Edited July 7, 2018 by SPLATT

[RevyRoamer]

How is the suspension?

Weight?

Range between recharging?

I would love a silent trail bike if lighter than my beta 300, and had as much or more range, and good suspension. 

I looked at a Zero once but terrible suspension and heavy. 

[zig06]

While electric bikes do hold promise and could quite possibly be our future, for now they are just over weight, can only go a short distance compared to ICE power, slow to recharge, and expensive.  Once those issues are finally addressed then we will have something. 

The fact that they can never "stall", are very quiet and that you will always be in the right gear will be something that a gasser may never be able to compete with.  But let's not get too caught up in the "100% torque at zero RPM" thing.  That's because as ICE engines rev up they produce "more" power, electric motors produce "less" power as they rev up as can be seen by the below dyno run.  Yup, it's an older dyno run from a Brammo motorcycle but it does highlight the powerband of an electric motor when scaled to that of an ICE powered motorcycle.

 

[S.O.A.N.Z]

1 hour ago, zig06 said:

Did you just draw that up yourself  ?

[zig06]

28 minutes ago, S.O.A.N.Z said:

Did you just draw that up yourself  ?

Nope, I blame Cycle World.  ?   Here's another one done on a '12 Zero S ZF9, the flat line from 1,000 to 3,000 RPM is just where Zero restricted the power through the controller's program.  Hard to say "why", it could be that they liked the power curve like that when riding or restricted it because of battery use, impressive none the less.

[kx-eck]

What do you guys think of the KTM alternative?

Ive ridden one at a local  place called Hypertrax (im in Scotland, UK) heres a link: http://hyper-trax.uk/ 

I thought they handled great and fast enough for the indoor track they have, the rear brake replaces the clutch lever so backing it into corners (just for fun) is a piece of cake. Rather expensive to buy one though...

[slotracer577]

I think they limit power at the low rpm to improve ride ability. My car limits power at low speeds due to traction limits.
If they can solve the range issues they will take over. The real problem as I see it is batteries have a very low energy density compared to liquid fuels. There is just not enough increase in efficiency to overcome the lower energy density.
If you look at an Alta, the battery is 5.8kwh, which is the same energy as .2 gallons of gas. To make that equal to 2.5 gallons of gas you need 12 times the efficiency to get equal range. Unfortunately ev's are at best 4x as efficient and most are 3x.

[zig06]

30 minutes ago, kx-eck said:

What do you guys think of the KTM alternative?

Ive ridden one at a local  place called Hypertrax (im in Scotland, UK) heres a link: http://hyper-trax.uk/ 

I thought they handled great and fast enough for the indoor track they have, the rear brake replaces the clutch lever so backing it into corners (just for fun) is a piece of cake. Rather expensive to buy one though...

I have never seen one in person but I can say that I was honestly interested in the Freeride electric when KTM announced it, to the point where I actually abandoned my own electric bike conversion.  Thinking that with a big bike manufacturer finally in the game that there was no reason for me to even bother building an electric dirt bike.  Sadly that was a few years ago and as far as I know KTM has only decided to import them into the US through very limited dealerships. 

15 minutes ago, slotracer577 said:

I think they limit power at the low rpm to improve ride ability. My car limits power at low speeds due to traction limits.
If they can solve the range issues they will take over. The real problem as I see it is batteries have a very low energy density compared to liquid fuels. There is just not enough increase in efficiency to overcome the lower energy density.
If you look at an Alta, the battery is 5.8kwh, which is the same energy as .2 gallons of gas. To make that equal to 2.5 gallons of gas you need 12 times the efficiency to get equal range. Unfortunately ev's are at best 4x as efficient and most are 3x.

Excellent point on 0.2 gallons being equal to a 5.8kwh battery, I never thought of it from that angle but it makes a lot of sense!

The one that I was trying to point out with the dyno curves above is that the "100% torque at zero rpm" on a dirt bike is meaningless, that would be like rev'ing up a dirt bike to max rpm and dropping the clutch - every time.  The results would not be pretty and the eBike OEM's know it, so they have rightly programmed their controllers to not allow that situation to happen.

So it's true that electric motorcycles are not ready to directly replace any ICE power machine but then again 4t dirt bikes couldn't compete with 2t's in the late 80's and early 90's...