Alta Was First Electric to Qualify for Erzberg Rodeo Last June
by
John Burns
Published: July 19th, 2018
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The Erzberg Rodeo is the toughest enduro in the world, and Alta took two riders to Austria last month to compete. Ty Tremaine qualified 43rd in his first ever attempt at Erzberg, and Lyndon Poskitt might’ve done much better than 113th if his race bikes and gear hadn’t been stolen out of his van at a rest stop dammit! As it was, Poskitt qualified on Ty’s back-up bike and then sat out the race. All you have to do is cover 22 miles in four hours to finish Erzberg; the Alta team came up just a bit short, but with what they learned this year, Husqvarna, KTM, Gas Gas and Beta could be in for a shock in 2019.
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Congrats to all who worked to make that happen. Good PR for the brand and EBs in general.
A little more detail on the battery swap would be interesting. Did the gas bikes need to refuel?
And a personal peeve of mine: if you’re going to do a “to the camera” comment session take off the darn sunglasses.
Range considerations aside, the Alta has to have a real advantage for riding super nasty terrain. Flexible power delivery settings, torque from a stop, no engine overheating in slow going, no power loss from high elevation. The bike is a little heavy and the range is a little short, but the Alta is really getting there as an enduro / gnarly terrain bike of choice.
All that said, my next dirt bike is a KTM 300 TPI. I love the snap and crackle of a good 2 stroke while riding off road. There are objective performance measures, and then there is the subjective fun factor. Two strokes, at least for me anyway, are just plain fun :)