First AMA race on the MXR

[Flynryan]

Hey everyone! I'm new to the forum here, but I've been lurking around and figured I might as well join.

A few weekends ago, I raced my Alta MXR at an AMA sanctioned D13/D29 motocross race in Elizabeth City, NC. I went 1-1 for 1st overall in the +25 A class. There are no other Altas in the area, and certainly none that are out there racing A class.

I must have talked to 75-100 people at the race asking questions about the Alta. There’s real excitement about the product! A handful of people wanted one and asked about where to buy.

There’s no dealerships around our area so I had to get mine shipped from Houston, TX. A few new dealerships have popped up since I put my deposit down in January, but there was nothing in North Carolina at the time. I purchased this bike because I believe in the product and think it’s the future. I think with proper suspension setup, laps times will be similar to my 450. I've seen some posts that say the suspension is terrible. I have to disagree here.. It's pretty damn good right out off the box. I haven't even touched the clickers or set the sag. I did play around with the air pressure a bit.

Below are a few Instagram links from the race. Hopefully links are permitted in this forum.

Elizabeth City Motocross Club Instagram links featuring the Alta:

1. http://instagr.am/p/BiLAQ2TBHhc/
2. http://instagr.am/p/BiLNX5QhHV3/

Picture of the holeshot from a random fan at the race.
http://instagr.am/p/BiQAkxLhhh9/
From my own Instagram -
http://instagr.am/p/BiPRPu0jB_g/

 

[snydes]

Welcome aboard! Awesome job! Please keep us in the loop on your racing experiences, I for one enjoy hearing about guys racing these things!

 

[OneLapper]

Welcome! It's great to see the pictures and hear the feedback!

 

[Philip]

Welcome, Flynryan. Thank you for the story, the pics and the video. It seems like almost every time an Alta enters a race, and it finishes, it wins it's class. What Alta needs is more local race wins to get more street cred. This is awesome!

 

[Josh402]

Awesome! I live just down the road from that track but only been riding at Morgans Corner. 2018 MX here. Like you, I had to have mine shipped from a dealer out of state. That costed way more than it should have to be honest.

 

[Mark911]

That's cool. I know the bike can win in the Vet classes but it's nice to see it do well in the more competitive (faster) classes as well. I've been begging Alta to sell me a MXR at cost (can't afford another big depreciation hit like on my 17) so I can sponsor some young "A" level talent racing it here in SoCal. My 17 MX just can't go the distance before it overheats and starts limiting power. Here's a picture at one of our local events with Matt Cerami (#140) onboard my 2017. Talk about competition, he was up against the likes of #33 Derek Drake and #122 Carson Mumford, a couple of the fastest A & B riders on the west coast. You can't give up any power in this group but even with the limiter kicking in Matt finished mid pack! I guess Alta would rather give away bikes to "free riders" rather than sell them at cost to weekend A class racers.

 

[Honcho]

Just reposted that holeshot photo to our Slack here at the Alta HQ. Made my evening!

 

[Honcho]

That's cool. I know the bike can win in the Vet classes but it's nice to see it do well in the more competitive (faster) classes as well. I've been begging Alta to sell me a MXR at cost (can't afford another big depreciation hit like on my 17) so I can sponsor some young "A" level talent racing it here in SoCal. My 17 MX just can't go the distance before it overheats and starts limiting power. Here's a picture at one of our local events with Matt Cerami (#140) onboard my 2017. Talk about competition, he was up against the likes of #33 Derek Drake and #122 Carson Mumford, a couple of the fastest A & B riders on the west coast. You can't give up any power in this group but even with the limiter kicking in Matt finished mid pack! I guess Alta would rather give away bikes to "free riders" rather than sell them at cost to weekend A class racers.

Hi Mark, this is Marc from Alta. What you describe experiencing with the MX is exactly why we weren't stuffing them into the hands of A riders - the MXR is what you need. And right now the MXRs are in really really short supply. No one is giving them away to anyone - There's a long waitlist of really patient customers we're building MXRs for as fast as we can, and the only R drivetrains in anyone's hands except for retail customers are the 4 in the EXs that were sent to Europe for Erzberg. Someday I hope we have the scale and the margins to support more racers, especially up-and-comers. It's in our blood and half the reason we started this company - to give some relief to the families trying to foot the bill for keeping their teenagers' machinery in top tick. But today we're still small.

 

[Philip]

The cat is out of the bag! Marc is the head honcho at Atla. Thank you, Mark, for joining the forum and keeping us updated. We really appreciate it!!!

 

[Silent But Dirty]

The cat is out of the bag! Marc is the head honcho at Atla. Thank you, Mark, for joining the forum and keeping us updated. We really appreciate it!!!

I agree. Pretty awesome to have Marc here!

The second round of the Rockstar Amateur Open is happening this weekend just outside of Vancouver, and if everything goes to plan, two Altas should be on the podium in the Open Beginner class.

For a slower rider like myself, the limitations of the MX have not been any issue.

 

[Mark911]

Hi Mark, this is Marc from Alta. What you describe experiencing with the MX is exactly why we weren't stuffing them into the hands of A riders - the MXR is what you need.

Hey Marc, haven't talked in awhile, hope everything is well. However, with all due respect (and not the "Ricky Bobby" kind of due respect), I'll need to see it first this time before I spend full retail again on a new MXR. I can't invest the kind of money (bike, suspension, testing, etc,) that's required at this level just to discover that the system starts limiting power 15 minutes into a 20+ minute moto instead of the 10 minute mark. Yes, it's an improvement but the result is the same. The "First Look" test results done at Perris early this year weren't very insightful in this respect.

Maybe my head has been in the sand the last couple months but I haven't seen or read about any A level riders motocross racing the MXR yet alone making it to the end of a typical moto on full power. That's why I was encouraged to see the OP (FlynRyan) results. But as you and I know, there's many factors that need to be disclosed when evaluating this particular aspect of EV performance besides the obvious. For example, was the system dead cold (ambient), just off charge, off charge after a race, etc. It's all guesswork right now. Being able to specify certain initial "at gate" operating conditions would be really helpful in cases like this so true apples-to-apples comparisons can be made and expectations adjusted accordingly. Until the technology allows for excess end of moto margin (for A class pace) this kind of information is almost mandatory for anyone wanting to make a fully informed purchasing decision. If you can share any information on this it would be greatly appreciated.

Hope to see many Altas at Mammoth. Altitude, no problem!

 

[Fog 25]

Hey Marc, haven't talked in awhile, hope everything is well. However, with all due respect (and not the "Ricky Bobby" kind of due respect), I'll need to see it first this time before I spend full retail again on a new MXR. I can't invest the kind of money (bike, suspension, testing, etc,) that's required at this level just to discover that the system starts limiting power 15 minutes into a 20+ minute moto instead of the 10 minute mark. Yes, it's an improvement but the result is the same. The "First Look" test results done at Perris early this year weren't very insightful in this respect.

Maybe my head has been in the sand the last couple months but I haven't seen or read about any A level riders motocross racing the MXR yet alone making it to the end of a typical moto on full power. That's why I was encouraged to see the OP (FlynRyan) results. But as you and I know, there's many factors that need to be disclosed when evaluating this particular aspect of EV performance besides the obvious. For example, was the system dead cold (ambient), just off charge, off charge after a race, etc. It's all guesswork ts like. right now. Being able to specify certain initial "at gate" operating conditions would be really helpful in cases like this so true apples-to-apples comparisons can be made and expectations adjusted accordingly. Until the technology allows for excess end of moto margin (for A class pace) this kind of information is almost mandatory for anyone wanting to make a fully informed purchasing decision. If you can share any information on this it would be greatly appreciated.

Hope to see many Altas at Mammoth. Altitude, no problem!

Mark911 I don’t know if this helps I road my MXR at Gorman MX track in map four at a good pace (not at race pace) for 42 minutes with no limiting of power. I believe a descent intermediate or local pro would have no problem with a 20 minute Moto. I did have my bike go into limited horse power mode with two bars left riding hard in map four at end of the day at LACR the other day. So I know what that’s like now. Now that the getting more comfortable with the bike I am starting to push it more. Will be doing more time testing soon to get a real life experience.

 

[wilhelm192]

I agree. Pretty awesome to have Marc here!

The second round of the Rockstar Amateur Open is happening this weekend just outside of Vancouver, and if everything goes to plan, two Altas should be on the podium in the Open Beginner class.

For a slower rider like myself, the limitations of the MX have not been any issue.

Slower Vet rider would agree . Butt patch my wife got me . What can i say .....

 

[MotoMinded]

awesome stuff!

 

[Flynryan]

Hey Marc, haven't talked in awhile, hope everything is well. However, with all due respect (and not the "Ricky Bobby" kind of due respect), I'll need to see it first this time before I spend full retail again on a new MXR. I can't invest the kind of money (bike, suspension, testing, etc,) that's required at this level just to discover that the system starts limiting power 15 minutes into a 20+ minute moto instead of the 10 minute mark. Yes, it's an improvement but the result is the same. The "First Look" test results done at Perris early this year weren't very insightful in this respect.

Maybe my head has been in the sand the last couple months but I haven't seen or read about any A level riders motocross racing the MXR yet alone making it to the end of a typical moto on full power. That's why I was encouraged to see the OP (FlynRyan) results. But as you and I know, there's many factors that need to be disclosed when evaluating this particular aspect of EV performance besides the obvious. For example, was the system dead cold (ambient), just off charge, off charge after a race, etc. It's all guesswork right now. Being able to specify certain initial "at gate" operating conditions would be really helpful in cases like this so true apples-to-apples comparisons can be made and expectations adjusted accordingly. Until the technology allows for excess end of moto margin (for A class pace) this kind of information is almost mandatory for anyone wanting to make a fully informed purchasing decision. If you can share any information on this it would be greatly appreciated.

Hope to see many Altas at Mammoth. Altitude, no problem!

Mark911 makes some good points here. I have found the limiter on a few occasions, mainly on sand tracks. For the race, I rode the bike in one practice and two motos. It had plenty of time to cool down. I was charging with a Yamaha 3000 @ 120 volts. During the motos I made it about 5 hard laps (15 minutes) before the limiter kicked in. It was 6 lap moto and I had a pretty good lead on them so not a big deal. The power only dropped off slightly and honestly I might not have even known if it wasn't for the yellow light. Elizabeth City is a sand track that covers a lot of acreage. You can really crank the throttle. Even 450s get bogged down. Temps were in the high 70s.

Flash forward to my last ride, a practice day at Morgans Corner MX park. This is another sand track similar to Elizabeth City. It had rained the day before and the track was deep. I also got a new generator, a Honda 4000CL which can charge at 220. The rapid charger was awesome! 20-30 minutes between sessions and you can pretty much ride all day. Temps were in the 80s with high humidity. The bike performed great in the deep sand, but the battery seemed to take a beating that day. I could never really get it to cool down, especially charging it in between motos. While charging, the bike was baking under the sun. After the first moto, I could only go about 8-10 minutes before the battery limiter kicked in. This time I could feel a power drop, but it still wasn't bad. I asked Alta about this (great customer service btw) and here was there response


"We have had good luck with mist sprayers and fans on the battery pack when it is parked between sessions. The type of sprayer that you can get for ~20 that is typically used with pesticides is perfect. Don't attempt to use one that has already been used with pesticides though, it could be very harmful to the bike.

With that said, the battery has many temp sensors in it and as you can imagine the heat at the core of the battery takes a long time to shed. Also, when you introduce charge to the battery the cells will warm up as well. If you are charging between sessions, perhaps let the SOC get a little lower than you have before trying to charge again. This is especially true with charging at 220.

If you can, try getting comfortable with Mode 2. While it doesn't have the ultimate power of Mode 4, it still has plenty for the bulk of what you might be encountering. It also discharges the battery at a MUCH lower rate than M4. Also, if you have a choice between point-and-shoot squaring off a corner and taking the outside line with momentum, choose momentum. This can help quite a bit with heat limiting and range. "

I don't think power level 2 is going to cut it, but I will try the mist sprayer and work on throttle finesse. I usually park the bikes in the summer so I don't think it's going to be a real issue. On another note, I've never had so much fun riding a dirt bike. The Alta is a real treat to ride!

 

[FadedMotocross]

Once Alta ever enters AMA Supercross... it will officially be mainstream. Looking forward to that day! #FutureofFast

 

[Philip]

Endurocross, Arenacross, then Supercross.

 

[snydes]

Endurocross, Arenacross, then Supercross.

Or whatever replaces arenacross

 

[Mark911]

Fog 25. Thanks for the data point. However, you reinforce my argument. Right now, the thermal limiting issue on the Alta MXR is still very much rider, track, and "at gate" operating condition (temps/voltages/etc) dependent. With any ICE bike designated for MX you can almost guarantee the bike will make 30+2 full on in the hands of even the fastest riders in the world (Southwick National is one exception). It's a design requirement aimed at the highest level of competition and therefore isn't even a concern for 95% of the racers like us who buy them for this purpose.

Obviously, being a new technology the Alta doesn't have the track record of our ICE competition. All we have today is anecdotal evidence regarding the MXR, and frankly not much of it to boot. It's a tough sell (financially) if you're sponsoring someone in that small 5% group.

 

[Philip]

Or whatever replaces arenacross

Alta already tried but couldn't get into Arenacross, did it?