It was raining from morning 10am in Chennai on Nov 7th. When rains paused at 3.30pm I went to test ride Ather 450x warp mode.
To my surprise there was production ready but non registered and not available for test ride, a grey/matte black 450x at the Ather Experience Center (EC). Checked it visually if any difference between the trial vehicle and production ready vehicle…could’t find difference in exterior looks; but touch screen display had icon to represent side stand and 4 modes. Also no more expected options like bluetooth settings, android name, ram size and storage space for 8gb were present. After having test ridden the 450 last year Dec two times (one with pillion), I was ready for warp mode trial.
Got in reverse mode, had smooth L turn, changed it to warp and was recommended to stay in that by staff for other modes common in 450. Headed to main road and gave half throttle, I just forgot I was riding a scooter and was imagining driving a tesla car with ludicrous mode. Just reached 70 in 4-6 secs, again slowed it due to traffic and gave full throttle. I was just over taking every vehicle…vehicles which had raced past me before got left behind me.
A car came from left intersection road blocked the road suddenly, so I had hard brake from 60-0 in 3-4 secs. Because of hard brake rear(left combi brake) back wheel got locked and skidded left and right a few inches making tire friction noise and left me feared of tire worn-out and skidding and falling down. Two people heard the noise and looked at me like rash driving. Asked EC staff about it, he told because of disk brakes wheel will get locked due to hard braking. I think the combi brake need to be adjusted like braking front more than rear or equal brake distribution to both front and rear wheel. But when hard braking and road damage due to electric line between road sides, the front suspension felt hard. Need to get adjusted to little more soft side. But rear mono shock worked well during quicker warp acceleration with rear wheeling because of equal weight distribution at front and rear and also on damaged roads.
Continuing my ride gave another more than half throttle and felt like flying. when I was on a flyover there was drag (speed pickup) compared to normal road…may be because of gradeability.
I was heading to marina beach, a person from opposite road looked me and Ather like new vehicle and I just remembered that I’m riding test ride vehicle and had to return it to EC. Turned right indicator to take U-turn. But the vehicle didn’t over turn or tilt to right side and felt like always 90degree straight…neither left nor right while also cornering. I felt different than ride my activa.
Even throttling at turning felt easy… no more torque reduction. Overtook an R.E with pillon but he tried to overtake me but failed and succeeded while blocked by cars before me in red signal. Waited for green signal and gave full throttle on signal and overtook every vehicle which was before me and reached next red signal leaving every one behind in half road distance.
Ensure EC staff about cornering and turning difficulty, he said to take another test ride in normal weather conditions. He said because of rainy and wet road, may be I felt that difference in turning and cornering. Ready to test ride in good weather and road conditions.
During this whole test ride I didn’t monitor the charge level and also speed (only twice or thrice on full throttle while starting from EC). I just couldn’t believe how I didn’t monitor the speed while riding and checking charge status while getting ready to ride, because I used to ride my activa 4g at constant 40kmph(economy speed) to get higher mileage. Maximum time in Highway while riding it to home to work and work to home (20km each trip and 40km round trip). I really liked the white and green colourings around vehicle and also booked 450 for that color. But when seeing (focusing, zooming in & out and also like concentrating on the colour) the 450x series 1 color for 5-10mins alone (due to rainy day EC was empty) front and sideways (rear not visible due to vehicle kept closer to corner walls) my thoughts reminded me my childhood cartoon samurai (hero with black and red dress in shadow background).
Waiting to get an EV since more than 4-5 years (because of tesla roadster) and waited for 450 a year back (cancelled to get 450x) and Waited for 450x unveil and waited for series1 unveil and waited for 450x test ride and now waiting for 450x payment window to open.
Now also having little more negative thought on delivery delay because I live 40km away from EC but confirmed with EC staff about registration, they will do it and not to be worried. If anyone registered their Ather in TN 19 (Chengalpattu RTO), kindly inform me any difficulties while registration and delivery.