Alta Motors

The boys at BRD have opted out of their first attempt at a name and are re-entering the world as Alta Motors, bringing the specs of their Redshift MX and Redshift SM as welcome presents. The first sketches of the Redshift began in San Francisco in 2007. Two riding buddies, Derek Dorresteyn and Jeff Sand, with a few decades of fabrication, engineering and design expertise between the both of them, fell in love with the idea of the smooth, perfectly responsive torque curve. Naturally, they started kicking around the possibilities for building their own electric motorcycle— a motorcycle that could be faster and more rideable than their gas bikes.

The Redshift Bulkhead—the chassis core—functions as the outer motor casing, the cooling circuit for the motor and inverter, as well as the transmission case for the gear reduction. Additionally, it is the main structural hub, connecting to the rear suspension, the airframe, the forged monocoque chassis, and the trellis skidframe. All of this integration is coordinated with very specific strength, weight, and stiffness goals to produce the right ride and compliance characteristics at all lean angles, and under impact. Traditional siloed disciplines would make this outcome impossible, but Alta’s integrated engineering teams and proprietary development tools make such parallel processing possible.