Racing an alta mx in UK enduro series

[lambo]

If I do manage to buy one it's to race in a UK hare scramble/enduro series what would I need to know or do to make the most of the bike, the terrain is equivalent to your east coast tight and often wet

 

[lambo]

I have just read a report by a member who raced his and got 34 mins though it was sand.. that is not enough if I can't get a 1hr run time it is pointless me buying it as that's how long the e bike class runs is there anything can be done? The bike I'm looking at is the 18 mx on ebay not an mxr though apparently has updated firmware? Can someone tell me what that translates to pls

 

[Rashid510]

MX = Redshift 1.0 Platform which has a battery pack which uses Panasonic 18650s.
MXR = Redshift 1.0 Platform which has a battery pack which uses Murata (Sony) 18650s. Change was done for performance and quality improvements.


Bike looks like its an MX bike skinned as a MXR. There are quite a few discussions on the forum going over the A and R pack performance. Firmware will affect few features of the bike, but do not change run time drastically.

 

[lambo]

So am I not going to be able to get that bike to run for 1 hour or are there mods can be done to improve it?

 

[Mark911]

I'd say the pack's about the equivalent of 3/4 gal of gas. If you can make it on 3/4 gal you'd probably go dead just as you cross the finish line, lol.

 

[snydes]

Nothing you can do to improve range. Probably isn’t going to work for you the way it sounds.

 

[enjoythesilenc]

What do other people ride in the e class?

How far can you go per hour on your race bike?

How much elevation change is there?

Unless the other entrants have bantamweight bikes or swappable batteries on full sized bikes, they are in the same boat as you as far as range limits. Everybody must still abide by the rules of physics and Alta still has the biggest battery pack available. If everybody is at the range limit, the e class will be more about riding efficiency rather than raw velocity.

 

[lambo]

It's going to be full of sur Ron's and lmx.. cake etc which will do 1 hour they wiegh nothing but run mountain bike suspension as its an enduro lap I thought an alta would smash it but if it can't do the hour doesn't matter the mountain bike type e bikes will be the bikes to run.. Shame really.. Maybe a freeride is best bet then

 

[lambo]

Or go with a cake or drill maybe

 

[Matt]

Very dependent on speed. I am from NY and do a lot of tight woods with wet and muddy conditions. I can get about an hour and a half if I leave it in map one at race pace most of the time. I did an enduro late fall last year, it was very muddy on a fast track and I was changing between maps for straight aways but most of the time it was in map 1 or 2 for the woods. It was about dead at the end of an hour and 5 minutes. It is very dependent on conditions and how fast the track is. I have found the ideal case is a mid to slower type course that you can flow through the woods on. Really fast stuff kills the battery quickly and really slow stuff isn't aweful but the stop and go ends up chewing up the battery a bit more. If you use map one and ride smooth I would guess you would be fine.

 

[lambo]

Very dependent on speed. I am from NY and do a lot of tight woods with wet and muddy conditions. I can get about an hour and a half if I leave it in map one at race pace most of the time. I did an enduro late fall last year, it was very muddy on a fast track and I was changing between maps for straight aways but most of the time it was in map 1 or 2 for the woods. It was about dead at the end of an hour and 5 minutes. It is very dependent on conditions and how fast the track is. I have found the ideal case is a mid to slower type course that you can flow through the woods on. Really fast stuff kills the battery quickly and really slow stuff isn't aweful but the stop and go ends up chewing up the battery a bit more. If you use map one and ride smooth I would guess you would be fine.

Is that on an mx?

 

[Jayfox911]

How “fast” are you and how much do you weigh?

I have an mxr and exr for my wife. I race in intermediate/expert and the mxr on a fast jumpy track in map 4 will last around 40 minutes before the warning battery low light comes on. I weigh ~200lbs. I charge with a 220v generator at the track so I am normally almost fully charge when doing 15-20 motos with a 20-30 min break between to charge.

However my wife will ride for an hour or all day at the track in map 2 or 3 and use 1/4 battery on a flat slower trails or track, she is a beginner. She weighs ~120lbs.

I do not think the mx vs mxr is noticeable in maps 1-3. I have owned a mx and our friend bought it from us. Main difference to me is in map 4 and suspension. However if you get the suspension revalved for you then it would be only map 4, and only “fast” people “need” map 4. I personally would prefer a map 3.5 haha. I like map 3 for low to mid but need the power of map 4 for the bigger jumps and long fast straights.

also I believe that If a Surron can make it, then an Alta can. Just don’t use map 4 and don’t go full throttle often for your first race. Wide open on the e bikes uses a lot of battery.

long story short, if you are very fast and weigh over 200lbs the Alta probably will not last an hour of racing, I believe.

 

[VINSANITY]

I have found fairly aggressive trail riding in softer sandy soil in Texas heat I can usually get 20 miles of range - 180 pound rider, hard on the brakes and not even trying to conserve range. Most range I have ever had in these conditions was 24 miles

 

[enjoythesilenc]

Its been a long time since physics class but F=MA doesnt have any exponents so the amount of work the battery does is linear with respect to weight.

The Alta battery is roughly twice the capacity of most surrons. Unless a rider is less than 40 pounds, the Alta should have more range than that same rider on a surron.

 

[effinsiok]

I did a hair scramble in the fall on my ‘17 MX. I rode fast in map 1, but was conservative with the throttle coming out of turns - I found it to be plenty of power for that style of racing (I’m about 195lbs with gear on, and for reference I am a middle of the pack A class enduro pace). The course was pretty flat and fast, and used the motocross track plus trails to make a 5.5 mile loop (lap times were 12-13 minutes). We did one warmup lap and then I did 3 race laps before flatting and came in with 1/4 charge left. Without the warmup lap I easily could have done 4 race laps and probably could have squeaked out a 5th lap.

 

[Mark911]

Its been a long time since physics class but F=MA doesnt have any exponents so the amount of work the battery does is linear with respect to weight.

The Alta battery is roughly twice the capacity of most surrons. Unless a rider is less than 40 pounds, the Alta should have more range than that same rider on a surron.

Correct - up to a point. Acceleration of a "wheeled" vehicle requires the additional component of inertia thrown in. The wheels are the principle factor, but anything that spins has inertial properties. The mass centrodes (mostly the tires and rims) is multiplied by the square of the distance to the spin axis. So basically, those Sur-Rons and other mountain bike type conversions with smaller diameter/skinny tires/wheels do have an advantage everything else equal (which it never is, lol).

 

[lambo]

I'm 230lbs without kit and I'm what you guys would term a vet a rider still competetive and I am genuinely hoping to win the series ovetall every round hopefully the brand new alta in UK although a serious amount of money gives me a real mechanical advantage as there's just nothing as competitive there's very few in UK.. there will be a few free rides and the rest are sur Ron's .. lmx cake.. etc so if I can find a way to get an hour from it I'll buy it.
I'm thinking of maybe a piggyback battery extension can be made to extend life

 

[lambo]

Just for the sake of clarity it's not an e bike class it's a full on e bike series with only e bikes racing.. There will be petrol bikes in seperate races same day

 

[privateer703]

Also, you would probably want the MX over an MXR since the battery cells have the same capacity, but a slightly slower discharge rate in the MX = slightly more range (or at least I remember reading something like that). There are some people on here who have both Alta's and Sur-Rons, maybe they have a good answer. This is a real tortoise and the hare situation.

 

[lambo]

I think other than the alta and ktm free ride that will perform similar to a conventional dirtbike the drill looks like the best of the rest