hightechnature
Well-known member
- Likes
- 61
- Location
- Los Gatos, CA
Happy Holidays AOF,
I have a '19 EXR with 1500 miles on it. Half of those are on dirt single track. Below is my range summary and what happens when I had to push the battery limits.
Dirt riding: When I am out in the dirt, map 1 is my go to map to save battery range. I don't use my breaks unless it is absolutely necessary. I typically ride Hollister Hills CA which has a lot of elevation changes. The more times I go up to the top and back down, the more it uses the battery charge. If I am hammering the throttle and doing lots of elevation change in map 2, I will get 20 miles out of a full charge. If I go easy on the throttle in map 1, and stay up top so that I don't go back down to the truck often, I can get 30-32 miles. If I ride at Anderson and focus on the black single track, i can get 32-35 miles -map 1. In map 2 it goes down to 25-28 miles.
Street riding: I have found that riding at highway speeds reduces your range significantly and can count on 33 miles or so prior to recharging. However, when I rode from my home in the Los Gatos mountains to Watsonville on back roads at around a 25-35 MPH average I got 51 miles once -which used to be my best. In this case, I didn't turn off the bike the whole trip because it seems to reset the battery gage lower each time I cycle the on switch. The 51 mile round trip still had about 1500 feet of elevation difference. Note that when I got the the last two miles to my home where it is all downhill, there was still a s single bar on the battery gage so I decided to hammer the throttle to see how the bike performed. The bike performed normally as it would in map 1 but the battery gage immediately went to zero and started flashing.
Pushing the limits: A few weeks ago, I bought a piece of land to speculate on it. On this day I rode my Alta from my home to the land to meet my real estate broker to discuss the sale strategy. I had ridden to the land before and had comfortably made the round trip which was about 25 miles. Since there was plenty of battery charge for the round trip, I used map 2 and enjoyed myself on the twisty mountain back roads and didn't worry about range. Once I got the land, I turned off the bike. When we were finished, my agent encouraged me to follow him to another piece of land that he thought may present the same opportunity. He said it was very close by and in the direction of my home -famous last words.
We got to the property -which was even further from my home, I arrived there with 1/4 charge left -so I knew i was in trouble. I looked over the land and left for home which was now 18 miles away. Prior to leaving, I strategized that the best route was a gentle climb up in elevation (500ft going to 2200 ft) to the top of Summit Rd and then downhill to my home. My thinking was two fold: 1) the road had more traffic on it in case I needed to flag someone down for help and 2) Even though there as a slightly shorter route, it was remote, contained a lot of up and down riding and had a very long and steep uphill section at the last 5 miles when the battery would be weakest. I believe this strategy saved day.
Because I knew I was in trouble, I started toward home at 15 to 20 miles per hour in a tuck in map 1 to maximize the battery range. I'll admit that it must have looked funny to see a 220-pound 6 foot 5 guy in a tuck on a dirt bike riding on the outside area of the road going 20 miles per hour -but desperate times call for desperate measures. I grimly watched as the last bars on the battery meter kept getting thinner and thinner, to the point where at 10 miles to go and still climbing uphill, there were no bars left and the display started flashing. But I kept on riding in my tuck and after what seemed to be forever, I got to the top of Summit rd and was on flat land. The bike kept on going and going and there was now 3 more miles of flat land and then 2 miles of downhill to the house. I stayed crouched in my tuck at 15-20 miles an hour and focused on keeping a very smooth throttle hand so there was no unnecessary acceleration. When I got to the last 2 miles, which was all downhill, the regeneration kicked in on the steep parts and I knew I was going to make it home. Even though I was using my regen, the display kept flashing -which made senses seeing how the battery was so discharged. I was relieved to get to the house and immediately plugged in charge the battery to 50% -which is how I store the bike. When I did the math, I realized I just set a new range record for me of 54 miles with the first 13 miles or so carelessly ridden in Map 2 and an estimated elevation change 2000 feet
Since then, I have not noticed any difference in battery range or performance on my EXR -but this is a only subjective assessment. The key point is that It is good to know that with some smoothing slow speed riding and a silly looking tuck to minimize load, you can get yourself out of a pinch. That being said, I don't recommend pushing your range into the zero bars and flashing display unless life deals you an unexpected need -as was my case.
I, like the rest of the enthusiasts on AOF, love my Alta. I will keep papering mine and enjoying its quiet superior off-road performance, its freedom from maintenance and its cult like motorcycle stature as I wait for the other big bike manufacturers to finally see the light that we all know is ours today. Keep on charging on -Bruce
I have a '19 EXR with 1500 miles on it. Half of those are on dirt single track. Below is my range summary and what happens when I had to push the battery limits.
Dirt riding: When I am out in the dirt, map 1 is my go to map to save battery range. I don't use my breaks unless it is absolutely necessary. I typically ride Hollister Hills CA which has a lot of elevation changes. The more times I go up to the top and back down, the more it uses the battery charge. If I am hammering the throttle and doing lots of elevation change in map 2, I will get 20 miles out of a full charge. If I go easy on the throttle in map 1, and stay up top so that I don't go back down to the truck often, I can get 30-32 miles. If I ride at Anderson and focus on the black single track, i can get 32-35 miles -map 1. In map 2 it goes down to 25-28 miles.
Street riding: I have found that riding at highway speeds reduces your range significantly and can count on 33 miles or so prior to recharging. However, when I rode from my home in the Los Gatos mountains to Watsonville on back roads at around a 25-35 MPH average I got 51 miles once -which used to be my best. In this case, I didn't turn off the bike the whole trip because it seems to reset the battery gage lower each time I cycle the on switch. The 51 mile round trip still had about 1500 feet of elevation difference. Note that when I got the the last two miles to my home where it is all downhill, there was still a s single bar on the battery gage so I decided to hammer the throttle to see how the bike performed. The bike performed normally as it would in map 1 but the battery gage immediately went to zero and started flashing.
Pushing the limits: A few weeks ago, I bought a piece of land to speculate on it. On this day I rode my Alta from my home to the land to meet my real estate broker to discuss the sale strategy. I had ridden to the land before and had comfortably made the round trip which was about 25 miles. Since there was plenty of battery charge for the round trip, I used map 2 and enjoyed myself on the twisty mountain back roads and didn't worry about range. Once I got the land, I turned off the bike. When we were finished, my agent encouraged me to follow him to another piece of land that he thought may present the same opportunity. He said it was very close by and in the direction of my home -famous last words.
We got to the property -which was even further from my home, I arrived there with 1/4 charge left -so I knew i was in trouble. I looked over the land and left for home which was now 18 miles away. Prior to leaving, I strategized that the best route was a gentle climb up in elevation (500ft going to 2200 ft) to the top of Summit Rd and then downhill to my home. My thinking was two fold: 1) the road had more traffic on it in case I needed to flag someone down for help and 2) Even though there as a slightly shorter route, it was remote, contained a lot of up and down riding and had a very long and steep uphill section at the last 5 miles when the battery would be weakest. I believe this strategy saved day.
Because I knew I was in trouble, I started toward home at 15 to 20 miles per hour in a tuck in map 1 to maximize the battery range. I'll admit that it must have looked funny to see a 220-pound 6 foot 5 guy in a tuck on a dirt bike riding on the outside area of the road going 20 miles per hour -but desperate times call for desperate measures. I grimly watched as the last bars on the battery meter kept getting thinner and thinner, to the point where at 10 miles to go and still climbing uphill, there were no bars left and the display started flashing. But I kept on riding in my tuck and after what seemed to be forever, I got to the top of Summit rd and was on flat land. The bike kept on going and going and there was now 3 more miles of flat land and then 2 miles of downhill to the house. I stayed crouched in my tuck at 15-20 miles an hour and focused on keeping a very smooth throttle hand so there was no unnecessary acceleration. When I got to the last 2 miles, which was all downhill, the regeneration kicked in on the steep parts and I knew I was going to make it home. Even though I was using my regen, the display kept flashing -which made senses seeing how the battery was so discharged. I was relieved to get to the house and immediately plugged in charge the battery to 50% -which is how I store the bike. When I did the math, I realized I just set a new range record for me of 54 miles with the first 13 miles or so carelessly ridden in Map 2 and an estimated elevation change 2000 feet
Since then, I have not noticed any difference in battery range or performance on my EXR -but this is a only subjective assessment. The key point is that It is good to know that with some smoothing slow speed riding and a silly looking tuck to minimize load, you can get yourself out of a pinch. That being said, I don't recommend pushing your range into the zero bars and flashing display unless life deals you an unexpected need -as was my case.
I, like the rest of the enthusiasts on AOF, love my Alta. I will keep papering mine and enjoying its quiet superior off-road performance, its freedom from maintenance and its cult like motorcycle stature as I wait for the other big bike manufacturers to finally see the light that we all know is ours today. Keep on charging on -Bruce
