#Alta redshift mx how to

He is also the designer behind Sutro Vision eyewear, which…may not seem to be relevant here at first, but…it shows that he has certain expertise with the entire ‘design to fabrication-and-marketing’ flow.Īlthough Alta has refined its design over time-based on their own experience and feedback from the factory racers, back in the beginning? They started with a reliable and respected system that used well-known principles that had already proven to be successful. Jeff started with experience in fabrication and welding, and then invented a step-in snowboard binding, leading him to found his own company for it. Next up is Jeff Sand, who has…an engineering degree (I’m starting to see a trend here). He now holds the ambiguous title of Alta’s “Chief Technology Officer” (CTO).Ī line of 2017 Alta Redshift dirt bikes being prepped to send to dealers

#Alta redshift mx how to

so…he is VERY familiar with how to make high-quality parts from scratch and…nobody else is making it yet. Derek is not only an avid dirt biker, and also has an engineering degree.

He was the owner of a machine shop, plus…he taught classes in 3D design and CNC machining. He is an experienced off-road racer (his uncle is Dick Mann, who is in the AMA hall of fame, and his father Bill was a flat-track racer). The “D” in BRD stood for Derek Dorresteyn. And… here is a 30-minute podcast from October 2017. The motorcycle section starts at 17:00, and Marc starts talking at the 19:00 mark. Here is a podcast from 2015, where Marc is interviewed about Alta. Here is a one-hour 2012 youtube presentation by Marc that not only spells out their early BRD days, but it is also one of the best examples I’ve seen of market analysis in preparation for starting a new company in an emerging field. Marc is the CEO, and…although he has proven himself over the last few years to be a capable CEO, he also has an engineering degree. Tesla’s early success also set the stage for smart entrepreneurs to see the opportunity and to be able to draw venture capital to fund new products that were appropriate for a lithium-powered EV drivetrain. And…it also showed that one useful strategy for a new start-up in a completely new field was to start with a premium product for a small upscale demographic. The Tesla car proved that a lithium-battery based electric vehicle could have good performance. No milestone event takes place in a vacuum, and…Alta was formed in 2010, just two years after the Tesla Roadster had been in production. They are…Marc Fenigstein, Derek Dorresteyn, Jeff Sand, and David Drennan. It was started by four friends that were all motocross enthusiasts. I’ll get back to that in just a few minutes… Where it beginsĪlta started out as a company in October of 2010, located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay with the name “BRD”. One of the things that distinguish the Alta design is the advanced liquid-cooled motor, which helps it manage heat-spikes from rapid-fire acceleration cycles. The rapid-fire speeding up and slowing down on dirt bikes is hard on the motors, controllers, and batteries, so…if someone is making an electric dirt bike that does this well, then…the engineers at that company are doing something right. And once you get on the main highway? you could cruise for as much as an hour without needing to stop and then accelerate up to cruise again.Ĭompare that to dirt bikes.

As a comparison, street motorcycles accelerate hard after the light turns green, but…then they enter a cruise-phase that can last for over 90% of the time they are running up to the next red light.