About the scooter: Ather 450 Gen 1.5
Purchased on 25th June, 2020
KMs ridden at the start of the ride: 25611
The ride started at 3:30 at my home, my 450 fully charged. I was carrying the dot in the boot. Though I was planning the ride since days, I never planned the day. On 23rd June, I had decided to ride my Ather 450 to a different city the next day.
I started at 3:30am from home on full charge with a total payload of around 100kgs. Our other 2 Athers wishing us a safe journey
I have planned to ride on eco as I am ok with not over taking vehicles and also given the age of the battery, I’m not sure whether it performs at 90%+ capacity. I have made note to leave early so that the fans won’t turn on and impact the range(thanks @chethanchandrashekar 's trip experience).
Leg 0: Home(bellandur) to Ather space Rajajinagar I wasn’t sure about the grid availability at Royal Airawath, so planned to charge to full at the new Ather space, Rajajinagar. I reached with 79% battery left and plugged it to the grid.
Clicked some pics while the scooter was charging
Leg 1: After charging for 40mins till 100%(5am), I started towards the next stop, Shivalli restaurant(Maddur)
clicked few seconds after I started towards Maddur
There’s a 15A socket available to use, found it via plugshare app. The original plan was to charge at Fish curry rice restaurant but they open at 11:30am and there’s no point in leaving late.
The road was good and the ambient temperature cool
Reached the restaurant at 7:30am with around 40% battery left, covering 71kms with 60% of charge. I realized that the battery is performing decently well and I can ride faster.
The charging setup at Shivalli restaurant and also had some yummy Masala dosa while the scooter was charging
I waited and worked on my laptop till 10:30am for the scooter to charge till 100% and then left Maddur towards Mysore
Leg 2: The roads were bad due to construction, traffic and hotter ambient temperature, I felt the battery was losing charge quicker than normal(usually in city rides, I wouldn’t care about the range as there’s always a grid nearby or I can reach home in eco). I have tried using the throttle more carefully and also tried being more aerodynamic during the downhill sections to be more efficient.
The toll plaza design looked cool though
I have planned the destination to be Mysuru Ather space (travelling between two cities, from Bangalore Ather space to Mysore Ather space marking the 2 years for my scooter). Reached the destination with around 8kms of range left at 1:30pm.
The security there didn’t let me charge for more than 15minutes saying that its against the rules. I talked to the folks to the EC and explained that I dont have a plug point to charge in mysore and I would need to charge longer. They agreed. Upon asking them why is the grid charging limited, they said that the battery performance is reducing due to grid charging, so they are only offering on emergency basis only. This wasn’t the Ather I have experienced in Bangalore. I know fast charging degrades the battery faster but if the user wants to charge, they should be allowed to charge.
I left the EC after an hour of charging till 77%
Left to my friend’s place nearby and came back to EC in the night for another top up but the night security there didn’t let me charge longer and he was also asking to handover the key to him. I had to convey my situation but still he wouldn’t listen and was making fun of my broken kannada language by repeating again and again. I was upset with this treatment and asked him to call someone superior and make me talk. He said why should he call for my sake and upon asking him multiple times, he gave someone’s number, who later allowed me to charge longer. I still wouldn’t want to hand over the key as there was my DSLR and laptops in the boot. So I waited for 45minutes, till my scooter was charged enough. This dog sat along with us and took many pats on the head
The next day is 25th June! Abby’s 2nd birthday (as I like to call it)
During my stay in mysore, I have searched the plug sharing apps like bolt, charzer etc but none of them are either near to my place of stay or not functional. I have visited the Chamundi hills during my stay. The ride up the hill was decent even in eco mode with a pillion rider.
The traffic is mysore is bearable but many don’t care to use indicators. The roads are wide and I noticed many 2W EVs on the road. Quite surprised.
I had to visit the service centre on monday(27th June) as I can hear a bad rubbing sound from the motor pulley which was replaced 3 weeks ago and also noticed that the front tyre is not spinning freely and getting stuck when I tried to spin with hand(without the weight of the scooter)
A person from service team tried lubricating it and informed that they can’t replace and claim warranty for 450 parts from mysore. He suggested to get it done in bangalore itself.
The view from the customer’s lounge at service centre and also found good lighting for the scooter to pose
Return Trip: After spending a good 3 days, I have planned to head back to bangalore but this time with a pillion (my friend). I know that it would be bit difficult with pillion and uphill on the way back to bangalore. So I have planned the journey in 3 legs this time.
I had charged to 80% the night before and planned to reach Ather space to charge till 100%. I started at 4am to Ather space and charged till 5am to 100%. I headed towards Mandya which was 50kms from mysore. I found a IOCL petrol pump in Charzer app which has a 15A socket. I have asked some friends of friends to enquire about the plug point availability the previous day and its available.(got on call with the pro @Abhishek for tips on requesting for a plugpoint in mandya)
The sunrise!
Reached Mandya IOCL plug point by 6:55 and started charging. Travelled 55kms from Mysore to mandya
We charged for an hour while we had breakfast and left mandya at around 8am towards Shivalli restaurant Maddur. I am sure that we would have covered the 81kms with pillion on a single charge but that would be too tiring.
We have reached maddur at 9:20am covering 30kms and plugged in the scooter and we went exploring the place. There’s an Organic store and toy shop along with restaurant. The scooter was charged to full by 12:15pm and we started towards bangalore doing good speeds as the Royal Airawath Grid point is just 55kms from Maddur. We reached at 1:45pm.
Upon reaching the Grid, We were at 10km range but the grid wasn’t charging the vehicle. Disappointed, I looked to the next nearest charger, Sangeetha mobile which was 6km away. To our bad luck, its the same case with this grid as well. I called CC, they said a ticket has been raised and RSA will be arranged. I know RSA takes long, so tried searching for a plug in bolt app and found one 1 km away.
We reached the bolt socket, there were 2 of them and started charging the scooter( my home was 25kms away, so had to charge enough before i leave). My phone battery was also low, luckily I had smart plug which has a 15A plug which can be used with the bolt socket to charge my phone.
After waiting for 30mins, I realised the Ather space Rajajinagar is near and I can charge the scooter there. Even if the grid doesn’t work, I could atleast request for slow charge and sit in the EC peacefully. Luckily, this time the grid at Ather space was working but was being used. We waited till it got free, plugged the scooter, then headed into the EC and waited.
I was fully drained out, hungry and also sleepy. Took a power nap until the scooter charged till 50%. I wanted to ride home ASAP and there will be lot of traffic as well as its towards the peak hour. We started at 4:30pm from EC and reached home at 5:30pm riding 22kms.
The ride was great except for the hiccups in bangalore with respect to Grids.
@tarun , you guys really made a great scooter! started loving it more!
