Milandr Power Machines - A Russian Alta

[Philip]

A company in Russia is developing an Alta competitor. The bike in the video is 45kW and 280 lbs -- very comparable to the MXR. No cooling (yet). It is a working prototype.

It has a steel tube frame and a quick swappable battery. The range is similar to Alta's. The guy says it is faster than the 450's on a motocross track, which it should be.

Very good throttle control, judging from the videos.

Not counting that one Italian company that makes whimpy-looking electric MX bikes, this one looks like the first potential contender, if they add some cooling.

 

[Philip]

They must have already bought an Alta EXR to benchmark against.

 

[Fog 25]

Check out the size of the rear sprocket.

 

[Philip]

It must not have a gearbox.

 

[snydes]

Wow that’s a big sprocket!!

 

[Philip]

Looks like a direct drive motor with a tiny sprocket coaxial with the swing arm's pivot. Small wheels, a huge rear sprocket, and you can get away without a 3.5x reduction gear.

The guy says it has 45kW (60hp) but the subtitles and the comments say 50kW. This is 67hp. Damn.

 

[Speedkills]

Love the fast charging from 380v. Also, that guy has some serious co-ordination. I'm stunned watching him cover the regen brake with one finger and hydraulic brake with another. No way I would pull the right one when needed.

 

[Rix]

Check out the size of the rear sprocket.

Yah it looks like its a direct drive unit with no reduction drive. This is why the rear sprocket is so big and the front is small. This also tells me they are using a motor with a slower wind/stater turn count given the voltage perimeters are the same.

///Edit///, looks like Phillip already commented on this.

 

[Mark911]

The deeper I tear into my Alta the more I'm convinced that most of the physical tech is readily available. Much of the electronic tech is also commercially available. Of course, most of the hardparts (suspension, wheels, etc) are all available. However, the trick is to seamlessly integrate the tech into a complete package like Alta did.

The final, and possibly the most valuable tech is the motor control programming. Obviously, there are commercially available products, even some pretty good stuff for EVs. But the generic stuff is pretty crude compared to the application specific Alta code.

So, could you or I build a complete bike from stock parts? Yes, and with some sound engineering it'd probably perform pretty well in some circumstances. But it'd weight more, be ugly as hell, cost a bundle, handle quirky, and not be nearly as competitive as something like the Alta (which was a clean sheet design).

The bike in the video remines me of something I could easily build in my garage. Come to think of it, if Alta does go down that might be my next project!

 

[Oded]

This bike reminds the Zero FX with its direct drive motor and huge rear sprocket. Even the weight is about the same
I suppose much better components on the russian version.

Here is my chain equipped FX for example.

 

[Philip]

Additional videos:

 

[Philip]

The first Russian electric backflipper:

 

[privateer703]

In Russia electric bike flip you. They could have gotten some who speaks fluent English to translate him. It would be very sad if one day I have to try and cram one of their ugly batteries in an Alta.

 

[TCMB371]

That huge rear sprocket and lack of rear linkage probably makes for some interesting rear end characteristics on a motocross track.

 

[Philip]

This bike does not have any cooling yet. They have given it to a stunt rider, to an FMX rider, but they haven't found an MX rider yet who wouldn't overheat it in 10 minutes. I am following this with interest.

 

[schwankl]

would be fun to add an alta left hand regen clutch

 

[teddyquinn]

...this one looks like the first potential contender, if they add some cooling.

Based on recent social media activity, looks like they've added cooling:

http://instagr.am/p/B83IPjFgSqL/

 

[Philip]

These guys really are using their electronic clutch.

 

[teddyquinn]

Believe the clutch actuates re-gen, based on some video translations. Everything I read / see on this seems to enforce that these bikes are strictly concepts and will not be widely available, which is a bummer. Who knows, though.

 

[Philip]

Everything I read / see on this seems to enforce that these bikes are strictly concepts and will not be widely available, which is a bummer. Who knows, though.

Milandr is not a motorcycle company yet, so they do not show concepts in order to keep selling their gas bikes. They show these bikes to hype up potential customers and investors. These bikes are early prototypes, not concepts.