Bengaluru to Dharwad on my Ather 450

Yes Anagh avre…

Yes. He will be riding it to Hubli. We are meeting in a while near mattikere. if youre free you can join us.

map location please

gmaps coordinates

As soon as he sends me ill send you

I thought so. Not sure where to get recharge on way to hubli.

Just wait and watch :wink: he’s got everything covered.

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On the way to Hubli-dharwad, our first pit stop at Dobaspete-Tumkur. This after having a comfortable 77-80 Kms…

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Super saaar! I was waiting for your message! Have a safe journey! :slight_smile: I can see another Ather! Who is that? :joy:

It’s none other than @Abhishek!! The all rounder!!

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Of course it is!

I met them before they left. That’s when Abhishek decided to go. :joy:

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Do you mind posting your ride stats ?

Trying to call them. They seem to be busy riding :joy:

I wonder what happened ?

Update on a call - they are able to achieve 100 km true range on ride mode.

They are currently at Harihar. Having lunch.

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reached Dharwad (at 3am) along with Dr.Chethan who is enthusiastic enough to plan a ride on his almost first day of his ownership

unlike me planning of @chethanjd was good but nature (heavy down pour) and power cuts troubled us a lot…

am starting now… back to bang

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Hi Suraj, Ya will share shortly… as I’m busy answering many people’s questions.

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Hi All,
My Journey with Ather started in July 2019. I was since Dec 2018 was searching for a new & proper 2-wheeler, as I saw a pop up ad on my phone on 08th July & thought of a test drive on 11th July 2019. As I work at DHARWAD as Assistant Professor at a university, I couldn’t afford a test drive there…
But as in Bengalur on 11 & 12th, so booked a test drive online. Made a serious attempt to understand the vehicle during test drive. It really made sense of putting my bet on the vehicle, but as I’m an vehicle enthusiast & prefer long drives, now only with 4-wheeler. I was sceptical about that with a EV & my doubt was true as per the explanation of the people at Ather space. But still never really wanted to try it from Bengaluru to DHARWAD.
On 21st Sep with a 2 week delay from scheduled delivery, I got the call from Ather executive asking me whether I can be at Ather space on 22nd, Sunday to pick my vehicle…
I was with full excitement accepted it & took my vehicle’s delivery on 22nd September. But the bug was biting me still about a FIRST EV drive from Bengaluru to DHARWAD. Had no alternatives planned like by train or in goods transport. So, planned to start on Monday at 5.30am but surely had my own sceptics looming lot…
… cont.

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On Sunday, as I planned to meet Anagh, another owner of Ather, from Hubli-Dharwad… he gave me a pleasant surprise with him was our all time enthusiastic expeditionist, Mr. Abhishek. This really made a lot of difference on my decision & now was completely serious about driving the vehicle to DHARWAD as he said "can I accompany you to DHARWAD, if you don’t mind ". That made my intentions look like a really a happening thing & was with a extra boost of enthusiasm. All because I would be backed by the huge experienced Mr. Abhishek also travelling with me.
I planned to leave Bengaluru by 5.30 am on 23rd, but with rain doing the spoilsport, we’re forced to start at 6.20 am as I slowed a bit. As we had planned schedule stop at Tumkuru, around 73 Kms from Bengaluru, we’re in normal ride pattern through this first stretch of our adventure. Reached Tumkuru around 8.30 am stopped at my friends house, as I had worked at Tumkuru previously, I know few many people at Tumkuru & so was confident of getting the top up easily. We had bit tough time though it seemed easy as the hosts, my friend’s house was at 2nd floor, but could not bother as Mr. Abhishek was equipped with all sorts of necessary tooling from 80mts 2.5 mm cable extension box with fuse to a extension box for industrial socket to extension box for even a bulb holder. We could connect both the vehicles in quick time, but the issue was both were not changing from single line of 32A. So thought of moving my vehicle to another place a house of my relative, as Abhishek’s vehicle was changing. There we had breakfast & spent some good time refreshing ourselves, took almost 2 hrs giving us almost 85% charge, sufficient to go to Sira, the next pit stop. But problem came in as we came to Abhishek’s vehicle to see that power had gone some time ago & vehicle had changed only 67%. This barely with proper ride conditions would give us not more than 55 kms. Our next stop was 54 kms from Tumkuru, hoping to give our best, we started towards Sira.
The next toll plaza near Sira was what we thought would give some option to top up & it was just 10kms before Sira. But, the toll people gave us a single point & that too with lot of sceptics. We were in need of two points to charge both the vehicles. So after spending some precious 1hr there looking for options, we thought we’ll try our luck so to reach Sira. That was probably the wrong decision, as we neither found any one in Sira by-pass helped us, but we ran into some serious troubles as Abhishek’s vehicle ran out of power entirely. We forced ourselves by pushing one vehicle using leg sitting on the other. So here I drove Abhishek’s vehicle as I was lighter by around 30 kgs & my vehicle had some 20% power which we thought would help to tow it to Sira town for some help. Nothing worked in our way, as we kept asking for changing at all possible places for about 2 & a half hours. Pathetic of all was even a electric 2-wheeler dealer denied us a charging time for a while, which made us feel out of options now. But without losing hopes, as it was already nearing 6.00pm, we keeping our fingers crossed tried every possible shop & outlet in the vicinity of around 1.5 to 2.0 kms. Even an atta mill fellow allowed us to charge, but had some issues with earthing & also it by itself consumed heavily, we thought we should try something else. So walking around the corner, I found a tyre dealer shop & he readily allowed us but only one point. That in such circumstances was more than enough & I asked Abhishek to start his vehicle charging. Just next to which was a fruit juice centre & a hotel, just tried my luck & to my pleasant surprise he too obliged pointing to two points available outside the shop. Plugged in my 450 too immediately & thought of a evening breakfast as we had nothing since morning breakfast at Tumkuru. Abhishek was not a person to have anything outside, but I thought I would give some business & spend some time too helping ourselves to borrow time to get to 85-90% charge. But rain followed by power cuts twice had a bearing on the next target. So by 8.00 we had achieved around 75% on Abhishek’s & 82% on my vehicle. So left towards our next quick stop Hiriyur, which was 38 kms away, with a short top up we thought we can make it to Chitradurga, which was 82 kms from Sira. Chitradurga happens to be my mother’s native & my birth place too. We were planning for over night halt at Chitradurga for 100% top up & move early in the morning the next day. We had a problem free ride till Hiriyur, had a quick break & top up too at my very old friend Harisudhan’s house, that gave us 30% on top so to reach Chitradurga.
Next on the way to Chitradurga, we had some uphill rides, that consumed our little more juice of the vehicle’s battery. This in turn had a exact point stop at my grandmother’s house with Abhishek’s vehicle showing properly “Zero” available charge as we entered the compound of the house & parked the vehicle. Tried some permutation-combinations & got the earthing right for both the vehicles by sharing one point set by Abhishek. Stated charging & went in, had our dinner around 1.40am midnight. We checked the vehicles were being properly charged as we dropped to sleep to rest ourselves after a huge tiresome travel. To add to our worries, in the morning we found that the power had gone in the right around 3.00am & so the vehicles were showing 65 & 72%. So with no power still, we were forced to wait for another 2 hours from 6.00 am to 8.00 am & 8.00 to 9.20 am we got 100% on both the vehicles. So started our day two at 9.30 am instead of 6.00 am, late by 3hrs 30mins. Our next pit stop was at Harihara after Davanagere, a good 82 kms from Chitradurga. Without any hassles we could reach Harihara bye pass around 1.00 pm & thought we’ll have something as lunch, for Abhishek he had got packing of chapatis & vegetable curry for noon from Aunty at Chitradurga. I thought I’ll have at the place we stop, as we enquired few they were in a point of confusion & on explaining got the clarity but couldn’t get any help. But a Dhaba run by a couple whole heartedly offered us help to charge our vehicles, but it was almost 2.00pm by then. We started changing & had some good food. But in an hour around 3.00pm we found power went off & supposedly it would be back around 5.00 pm. With 67% on Abhishek’s vehicle & 78% on my vehicle, we started next phase of our journey. The couple at the Dhaba were so cordial that they were serious about not taking any money from us in spite of we forcing them, but still made a point to pay some money apart from the lunch bill.
We were in our last phase of journey with almost 150 kms to DHARWAD & thought of one good stop in between near Haveri would help us reach our destiny. So, in this pursuit we started searching for options after 50kms from Harihara, as Abhishek’s vehicle had less than 70% power & at a place after Chalageri near Ranebennur, we started searching for a pit stop & top up full for 2 & a half hour. By then it was 4.30 in the evening, as we found a KEB (HESCOM) power station. We stopped by for the help & they suggested to try with the neighbouring Dhaba, Hotel green park. The owner, when asked for the help without any delay offered us the points & the charging was too pleasant as we got almost 87% on Abhishek’s vehicle and 92% on mine we were to make another 120 kms to DHARWAD. We could do 70kms & almost nearing our destination we needed another top up as we were short by another 70kms. So asked HP petrol bunk after 25 km of Haveri. Got the help, but with proper convincing that it would not take more than a unit of power for 1hr charging & paying them for the time to charge our vehicles. We paid them Rs. 50 per vehicle & left after getting a little more than 90% charge on each vehicle, so that we thought we would make it to our last stop without any extra need for charging. As we left it was 9.30pm & a proper managed drive would yield us the mileage we needed. So with steady driving we crossed HUBLI bye pass. Abhishek had over taken me by atleast 5-6 kms which bothered me as he should not miss the entry point to DHARWAD. I had planned to enter from Haliyal road so the route is nearest to my house & on bye pass it would be convenient to travel too as the road is in good condition. So to make up with Abhishek, I tried little faster on my vehicle, that took 10% battery capacity off reducing it to mere 10% with 15 more kms to go. As I caught up with Abhishek & just nearing the turn to Haliyal road from bye pass I found my vehicle was left with 4% charge, which at 1.30 am in midnight was a alarm for me. I started pushing the vehicle with motor being on & just easing me with the push, I accelerated little by little. Abhishek’s vehicle was left with 8% & could do another 3-4 kms, but we were around 7 kms from my house. Now he too started pushing the vehicle with motor on for next 2 kms, we did this to avoid the vehicle going to 0%, as this would take easily 20-25 mins to get back to 15% so to even start the vehicle. I had a plan to stop near the railway gate on Haliyal road & request the railway guard to provide 10 mins charge time for each vehicle. As we gave our try, the guard being very co-ordial, easily gave us one point available for us to charge. In turns we charged our vehicles 10 mins each there & left to our place. Finally, both of us could reach my house at 2.30 am on 24th September 2019.
Thanks everyone who made it happen.

The next part of return journey of Abhishek to Bengaluru on 24th from 9.30 am onwards would continue from his post.

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Great to share with you all that there are atleast 4 enthusiastic buyers who met me in last week, took a test drive & said they’re booking one very shortly. Among those was one so cute childish but so nice a guy Mr. Kulkarni, whom I happened to meet at Sapthapur. He came down to me like from no where & started with a great pleasure on his face, he ran to me near my 450 & was so overwhelmed to see the vehicle which he meant had seen on internet & was planning for a test drive at Bengaluru experience centre, but for his surprise he had got a chance at DHARWAD itself. In that moment of enthusiasm, he even asked me to wait & called his family & introduced the vehicle which he had planned for his daughter & also took a test drive with extra feel… myself felt really a happy to have done this for Mr. Kulkarni, a manager at KVG bank.

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