Pro racer makes Alta Motors RedShift look fast, production ready

The Alta Motors RedShift is the most eagerly awaited of electric motorcycles. At least, for those with a taste for high-performance motocross or supermoto action. It first came to our attention four years ago when its makers toiled under the banner of BRD, and we had expected to see it in customer's hands long before now. Still, good better things come to those who wait, and we think there's a decent chance the first bikes will arrive well before the first snowflakes.

The reason for our confidence is two-fold. First, after dribbling teaser footage and photos on its Facebook and Instagram feeds over the months since its big bike and rebranding reveal, it has just dropped a lengthy video (above) which really gives a sense that, development-wise, the bike is pretty much ready to go. Secondly, we called them up and had a nice chat with CEO Marc Fenigstein.

Although he wouldn't commit to a timeline until absolutely positive he can "deliver against that promise", we learned the startup is moving into its Bay-area production facility sometime around August. We would imagine that Job One could happen as early as October, though this is only a guesstimate. We are assured Alta will inform us more specifically when the dates are nailed down.

Confirming our thoughts about its present performance, Fenigstein says they feel they have met or exceeded their targets. After giving half-a-dozen professional riders and numerous others a chance in the saddle, feedback suggests they've surpassed their goal of being 250-cc competitive. As you can hear in the video, racer Kevin Butler makes comparisons to his 450-cc bike in situations where he flicks the on-the-fly performance maps to a more all-out setting.

Interestingly, though we've always heard the battery is officially a 5.2 kWh block, it seems that number has become a bit fuzzy, and we expect the unit – put together from energy-dense 18650-type cells similar to those used by Tesla – to hold a little more than that in production guise.

We look forward to seeing the RedShift in competition and think this is one of those vehicles with the potential to really change hearts and minds about electric vehicles. Until those helmet-cam clips arrive, excuse us while put this footage on repeat. If you can't spare the 20-minute time investment to check out the entire video, we have a shorter two-minute version below.