Since the day I bought an Ather, I have been waiting to have a long ride with wheeee sound, and along with that, I wanted to achieve the maximum range since I’ve seen a lot of people who will test ranges from different generation vehicles… Whenever I was thinking of doing this, I had very high hopes that at least it could take me to 180 since the other person has already done it, and I’ve seen how weight also does matter to achieve this, and I know I weigh less. I chose Mysore Road because it was a day after Dasara and I could see the lights, and the visit to Chamundi Hills had been pending for a very long time, so I thought I could complete that.
I wanted to test this before I reach 15000 odo. I also recently got my second service done and thought this would be the correct time to test it. But I was hoping for a belt change since it plays a very major role in achieving the maximum range, but service centre people said the belt can still run more 5k without any problems. So I started the journey in ride mode from home at 4.06 a.m. on October 26th towards Mysore with a 100% charge. Trip was set to 0, so even if the current ride is split, it’ll be easy for me to know the range that I have rode.
Why ride mode?
Because it’s easier for me to calculate the range as I have 85 in range mode and want to achieve 180+… if I ride 2km with a range usage of 1km I could easily achieve 170 and I knew it before also during my everyday commute itself I was getting around 1.5 km for 1 km range so that gave confidence with the efficiency I could achieve moreeeee…
I definitely knew I couldn’t complete this in a single stretch so split my ride into two first thought of completing 90 and remaining 80+ later after breakfast with one hour rest so it would be easy for the next go… while starting took a nice road which is 15 km away from my place but the village roads are too bad and affected my range in the starting 3km itself… till I reach the nice road I had that fear but there was a legend Ather and it made me happy by passing those village roads with ease and it took almost half an hour to complete 10 km which is very similar to riding in Bangalore traffic… the speed was not more than 30 throughout and by that time I already got a hang of throttle so it was fun to explore. After 10 km, I used 5 km of range, which was almost a good one. I got that confidence of getting 180+… After completing 25 km, I wanted to use my gloves because it was too cold and my hands started shivering 
, so thought it could distract the throttling and stop the vehicle. Unfortunately, I had to turn off the scooter because the gloves were in the boot space. These are the pictures of the first 90 km.
Since the village roads have a lott of potholes and it was a very short duration and distance, the wh/km was 20 I thought, but later it was reduced to 16 in the last 50 km. The ride stats got split again, and I don’t know why, but the current ride wasn’t affected, so I was able to capture the picture. When I completed 90 km, it was 9:30 am, and I was near Shivalli restaurant, which has an Ather charger also… so I had my breakfast there, took some rest, and started towards Mysuru again. So for the first 90 km itself, I took almost 5 and a half hours, which wasn’t an easy time.
These are my first riding clicks, I must say. 
This is a compulsory click while on the Mysuru road with the hills.
From my place to Mysuru, it was showing 160 km, but I knew Ather could give more, so after breakfast, seeing a lot of range in almost 50% itself, I started rounding in the same places, like taking a turn and coming back on the same road to cover that extra 20 km. During this time, I had reached 44 km speed on my speedometer during a down road, but it went unnoticed as it was feeling like relaxation. I didn’t want this to happen; unfortunately, it depends on the time and the feeling that we’ll be in, so I felt it’d be okay after some time. But for the first 90 kilometers itself, my hands were not sensing anything; they were completely numb. But still, I had that craze to complete it. I was so tired that I was not able to sit anymore, so I started moving behind and forward, not even stopping when bumps or potholes came in between. Doesn’t want to reduce the speed at any cost. But the service road is not meant for this, I felt. Every 1 km I was getting speed breakers, and this road has a lot of ups rather than downs, which was quite annoying, and because of that, the total range stopped at 180, I feel. It could have gone more than 200 if speed breakers weren’t there and there were stable roads.
After the mode changes, it feels very sad to see that buzzing red color, which comes below 18. But still, during that time, it gave more range; maybe it’s a one-line highway stretch. I got 64 km for the 30 km range. Which was more than what I expected at that low charge, too.
Then, during that last 15%, I was more conscious of the range I was getting and so freaking tired. My whole body was feeling that numbness, and I couldn’t even calculate that last-minute range. I was still left with 4km range when I reached at Ather space Mysuru, by completing 175km.
So I just wanted to make it zero and see the complete range. I again started rounding near Ather space itself. I completed 3 rounds but still had 2km range left.
Soo again went for 2 more rounds, but even the charge wasn’t coming to zero, so started using the full throttle. And when I saw that zero on the dashboard, it was a completely different zone. That feeling can’t be explained by words. It was around 3.40 when I stopped the vehicle. Imagine a 11.5-hour ~ 12 hours ride on Ather with less than 30 kmph. It wasn’t an easy task. But I enjoyed this thoroughly and had a very good time.
As soon as I reached Mysuru, Ather space drank a lot of water because it was too sunny and my whole body was boiling… almost half of the ride was in hot weather and the day had around 32° temp. But still, I managed to not get the fan turned on, on the roads while riding. So Ather must be appreciated for this…
This is the last 90 kms ride stats and after seeing that 17wh/km in phone it was a different feeling.
After some 5 minutes of rest, I put my Ather for charging. This is the very first time I used a complete charge and made it zero. So it had a different feel in itself.
Saw Puneet Rajkumar photo next to charger and felt happy for that. 
After all of this, I called my brother, @chethanchandrashekar , and sister, who were in Mysuru before me, and we had lunch together at 4.30.And charged until 75%, and after the charge, I headed towards the room that I had already booked; it was just 2.8 km. I freshened up a bit and got ready to visit St. Philomena Church and the aquarium in Mysuru. Not the last Mysuru palace with those lights. Omg, it was magical. Seeing all those roads filled with lights gave me a lot of energy. And we had dinner. I came to my room and slept aaramse. Early in the morning, I wanted to visit Chamundi Hills, so woke up at 4 am, got ready, and left towards the hills. Since it was Friday and two days after the Dasara, lots of rituals were going on, so I witnessed a heavy rush at Chamundi Hills. Finally, after waiting for 2 hours, I got blessings from Chamundeswari. While coming down the hills, I tried to regen more and got 2%. And had breakfast. I wanted to charge my scooter because I had just 30% after all this.
During this crucial time, I faced an issue: I just had 8 rupees in my wallet and couldn’t recharge it. I was trying this for the last 5 days and reported it one day before going to Mysuru, but nothing was happening. Even though I used 28 rupees, it was asking for some 77, and in the end, I recharged more of 60, but it wasn’t reflecting. After 10 a.m., I started eating customer care people head, and they were asking for time. So at that time, I went to the room, checked out, and came near Ramya restaurant. A guy was charging, so we waited for 10 minutes and put my scooter for charge, and after that, it’s my brother’s. And without showing any low balance, it was charging, so I didn’t think much of it. After this charge, I was able to recharge, but that was also stopping at 60 rupees. Even now, my wallet is showing only 60 rupees, and I can’t recharge that. It’s showing an error message.
Left towards Bengaluru around 2pm and on the way visited Karanji Lake, left at 3 30 pm, stopped at Ather Space Mandya around 6 pm charged till 80 and again started towards Shivalli restaurant. Had dinner and charged the scooter. The time was already around 8 o’clock, and the sleep sir was behind me. Even I had my sister as a passenger while coming, so doesn’t wanted to restrict the speed while coming, always going above 40 km/hr. And I thought of reaching Ather space Rajajinagar, but unfortunately, due to the low charge, I had to stop at Chek Power Kengeri for the charge, and it was around 11:30 when we were there.
Finally, from there started towards home and reached by 1 o’clock in the night. Even while coming, it took almost 9 hours to reach with all the time for charging and having food. Since we both had a whee camp to attend the next day didn’t want to waste time, so put my scooter on charge and slept.
The major credit goes to my brother and the Lord Maximus, @chethanchandrashekar . He guided me through all the good and bad that can happen during this with his prior experience. So that helped me achieve this, and I’m very grateful to him.
The major things I observed during the trip*
- Ather has a lott more potential than we think, and we can try our best to showcase that.
- The regen is a great feature for an EV, which can reduce the usage of breaks by charging the scooter.
- I didn’t use any horns, indicators, or high beams, so charge usage can be reduced.
- Mysuru roads were too good and felt like butter on top of dosa. Wish the Bengaluru roads feel the same one day.
The total travel of 400+ kms… and that satisfaction after all this circus was not meant for words…All thanks to my Ather without its support I couldn’t have done this.
