Alta Motors was an American manufacturer of

off-road Off-roading is the activity of driving or riding in a vehicle on unpaved surfaces such as sand, gravel, riverbeds, mud, snow, rocks, and other natural terrain. Types of off-roading range in intensity, from leisure drives with unmodified vehicl ...

and dual-sport

electric motorcycle Electric motorcycles and scooters are plug-in electric vehicles with two or three wheels. Power is supplied by a rechargeable battery which drives one or more electric motors. Electric scooters are distinguished from motorcycles by having a st ...

s based in Brisbane, California.

History

Derek Dorresteyn, whose family has a long presence on the San Francisco motorcycle scene, started working on a bespoke electric bike in 2007. He partnered with industrial designer Jeff Sand and entrepreneur Marc Fenigstein to found BRD Motorcycles in 2010. The acronym's meaning was only known to the founders and never disclosed. In 2011, Alta hired Viktor Pritzker, a former Director of Sales at

Vectrix Vectrix was an electric vehicle company based in Middletown, Rhode Island, United States, with research and development facilities in New Bedford, Massachusetts and an assembly plant in Wrocław, Poland. Vectrix ceased all US operations as of Dec ...

. In 2013, Tesla co-founder

Martin Eberhard Martin Eberhard (born ) is an American inventor, engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Tesla, Inc. (then Tesla Motors) with Marc Tarpenning in 2003. Eberhard served as Tesla's original chairman, and its CEO until late 2007. In 2015, he was in ...

joined the company's advisory board. After securing additional investors, BRD changed its name to the more evocative Alta Motors, a reference to its home region of ''Alta California''—or

North California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

. In March 2018, Alta Motors announced a partnership with Harley-Davidson for the development of future models of electric motorbikes. However, H-D walked out of the deal six months later, opting instead to set up its own

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

unit in the Silicon Valley. Following Harley-Davidson's divestment, the company was reported to be in negotiations with Canada's

Bombardier Recreational Products BRP Inc. is the holding company for Bombardier Recreational Products Inc., operating as BRP, a Canadian manufacturer of snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, side by sides, motorcycles, and personal watercraft. It was founded in 2003, when the Recr ...

for an injection of cash, but this did not happen and Alta Motors went out of business in late 2018. BRP later did acquire some of Alta's technological assets from its creditors.

Products

* Redshift MX ( motocross, base model) * Redshift MXR (motocross, premium model) * Redshift EX ( enduro, base model) * Redshift EXR (enduro, premium model) * Redshift SM (

supermoto Supermoto is a form of motorcycle racing held on race tracks that alternate between three kinds of track surfaces: the hard packed dirt of flat track, the irregular jumps and obstacles of motocross, and the paved tarmac of road racing. Supermo ...

) A projected Redshift SMR model was registered with the NHTSA, but there is no evidence that it reached the market. The Redshift platform is the basis for the SilentHawk stealth dirtbike developed by

military contractor The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and servi ...

Logos Technologies of Fairfax, Virginia. In 2017, the company also unveiled a prototype called the Redshift ST (for Street Tracker), which was pitched as a hybrid urban and flat track speedway machine.

Racing

Due to debates regarding the equivalency between electric and combustion engines, Alta faced an uphill battle obtaining sanction to race in a major series, but the brand's products still showed up at a few established events. The Redshift MX made its professional debut in the Lites class of the 2016

Red Bull Straight Rhythm Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

off-season tournament, advancing to the second round. It returned in 2017, but was eliminated in the first round. On both occasions, the bike was ridden by Josh Hill. Also in 2017, Alta announced that it would feature in the SX2 class at a pair of

SX Tour SX, Sx, sx, or Sx may refer to: In medicine * Sx, symptoms * Sx, surgery In music * SX (band), a Belgian indie pop band * S-X (producer), a British producer and singer In technology: * .sx, the country code top-level domain for Sint Maarten * ...

events, the

Geneva Supercross Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

and the Paris-Nanterre Supercross, thanks to an exemption granted by the tour's sanctioning body, the Fédération française de motocyclisme. However, equipment shipping issues limited its participation to the Geneva Supercross' Duel Cup, a side attraction consisting of four riders competing in best-of-three, one-on-one playoffs. Hill won the second night, beating event spokesman

Ricky Carmichael Richard Joseph Carmichael (born November 27, 1979) is an American former professional motocross and stock car racing driver. He competed in the AMA Motocross Championships from 1997 to 2007 and in NASCAR from 2008 to 2011. Carmichael is notable ...

( Suzuki RM-Z450) in the final. Alta made its AMA EnduroCross Championship debut in Round 4 of the 2016 season with Veteran class rider

Kurt Nicoll Kurt Nicoll (born 15 November 1964) is an English former professional motocross racer. Nicoll was one of the top riders in the Motocross Grand Prix World Championships during the late 1980s and early 1990s, finishing as the runner up four times ...

. Nicoll won the event in his class. In 2018, the company upped its efforts, signing Ty Tremaine as a regular entrant in the Pro class. His third-place finish in Round 3 was credited as the first podium placing by an all-electric bike in an

AMA Ama or AMA may refer to: Ama Languages * Ama language (New Guinea) * Ama language (Sudan) People * Ama (Ama Kōhei), former ring name for sumo wrestler Harumafuji Kōhei * Mary Ama, a New Zealand artist * Shola Ama, a British singer * Ām ...

-sanctioned professional series. However Alta Motors folded partway into the season, and Tremaine finished his campaign with

Beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...

.
Tremaine, alongside Lyndon Poskitt, also took part in the 2018

Erzberg Rodeo The Erzberg Rodeo is an Austrian motorcycle enduro event started in 1995 and held annually in May or June, run on ore. It is the largest of its kind in Europe. The Erzberg Rodeo is part of the Red Bull Hard Enduro Series, together with Re ...

hard enduro for Alta.

References

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External links

Electric Dirt Riders – Alta Owners ForumAlta Motors at Dirt Bike RidersAlta Motors at Vital MX
Battery electric vehicle manufacturers Electric motor manufacturers Electric vehicle battery manufacturers Motorcycle manufacturers of the United States Motor vehicle manufacturers based in California Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 2010 2010 establishments in California Companies based in California American brands American companies established in 2010