A motorcycle company’s first recall is a milestone event, an unwelcome milestone, but an inevitable one nonetheless. That is where startup Alta Motors finds itself today, with its first recall hitting the NHTSA newswires.
Affecting certain 2019 Alta Redshift EXR and 2018-2019 Alta Redshift MXR motorcycles, this recall concerns Alta’s throttle system, which under specific circumstances can fail, and cause an apparent “stall” of the motor.
The issue is software related, however, and the fix is an update to the firmware to the affected motorcycles. The firmware update takes about 15 minutes to perform.
According to Alta’s recall documents, the “stall” (for a lack of a better word) occurs when the throttle is rolled forward, past the closed position, which then trips up the software reading the throttle position.
This causes the motorcycle to shutdown power to its electric motor, and give an “inverter throttle” fault code. Power will then not be returned to the motor until the motorcycle is turned off and back on again.
In total, 215 bikes are affected by this recall according to NHTSA, 59 of which have been delivered to customers says Alta. As of this writing, 34 bikes have been updated with the new firmware, Alta also tells us.
In order to remedy the situation further, Alta will notify affected owners, and Alta dealers will install an update for the throttle software, free of charge.
Concerned owners may contact Alta customer service at 1-415-230-0755. Alta’s number for this recall is SVC-ESB-18-004. As always, the NHTSA is also available at 1-888-327-4236 and safercar.gov.
Source: NHTSA
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