Wanted to record/share my last trip on filght to Pondicherry…… in December along with Rahul and aravnd….
This idea started when I have been to Chennai for the launch event (along with many other owners, who are truly remarkable). I happen to meet future owners and now ‘owners’, few are from Coimbatore as well… most of the Chennai guys are interested with Pondicherry and at least 4 of them said ‘we shall plan a ride to pondi’, so I though this is quite a famous place so made a plan on maps which I thought would be very easy….
So after the deliveries started some of them have been in touch and we are just planning it but due to some other issues with my flight (tyre pressure loss and some rubbing noise from transmission) kept postponing the dates most of the time… finally sorted (replacing the tyre with TVS tyre as I have ridden the flight without pumping the air for 2 to 3 weeks testing the lowest psi it can go – that ruined the tyre), and planned the ride to Pondicherry
First idea was to transport flight to Chennai and make a round trip to pondi…. When I enquired about the options (train and road transport) the feedback from other users is not to risk as we have clean and white panels all over the body…… so didn’t want to transport it and so have decided to ride.
********The day before I was supposed to start, While I was returning from Ather service center, a guy on a bike tried to squeeze in between me and a car, he tumbled and hit the car door and moved close to me before he could get the balance, bike footrest hit the right fin (which pop-out below fairing).
I was surprised how easy it was to break the panel with such a common occurrences in traffic, it took some time to realise that something snapped out as the part flew 10 feet away and some guy who is trying to cross the road gave it to me. For a moment I thought there is no damage as it looked clean but taking a closer look the clamps which hold the panel are still hooked to body panel but the moulds were broken then I realised I need a new one to fix this, so this took some time there on the road and returned home ********
Now I need to decide if I need to proceed with the trip next day… I dindt want to postpone and so have decided to continue with the plan…
I have started at around 8am in the morning from Bangalore (5am would have been deal) and the followed the same route as I have done previously… (Kolar, Chittoor and Arakkonam) reached Chennai 5am next day!!! (I know this isn’t supposed to happen as I have started late from Bangalore I was not able to accommodate buffer for mishaps which include choosing a wrong location to charge flight at arrakonam, the place donot have enough voltage but somehow flight agreed to charge partially an interesting behaviour was observed…flght charges for about 5 minutes and stops, resumes after 3-4 min, it took 4hrs to reach 75% after a long time with too many DIY on the site – BTW I want to thank entire Chennai Ather owenrs community *specially Rahul and Harsha who helped me find a place to charge in arakkonam within an hour when I started from chittor – shall meet you guys when you guys have next owners meet/ride in chennai I know it’s no sooner but whenever), I was short by 5km from Rahul home and so he came to me and we towed mine to nearest charging grid!
Later we both started the trip around 8am and reached EastCoast charging grid….where aravind is waiting to join us
Started charging the flight but it isn’t fast charge – it appeared there is some problem with this point (it troubled me even I have been there during the Chennai launch – have to keep a close eye next time)
As it is taking forever to even reach 80% we decided to have some food and ordered it,
finally we started by deciding the next stop is some 50km (I have insisted that we atleast plan 75km to have time saved – but assuming it was their first long ride I haven’t pushed them for it which happen to be a bad decision)
But all along the way my transmission rubbing noise came back and now it is irritating not just me but Rahul riding along by myside,
Reached the defence colony along that route and started charging for about hrs!!! – at this time me and Rahul started discussing the possibility of asking @atherteam to provide a fast charger and we can setup 15amp points along the highway if we find some hosts –
Fast charger would have been nice – it is not impossible to find 15amp plug along the highway we both felt.
Headed towards Auroville near pondi after a long wait!, now after travelling about 20km I noticed that weird noise kept on increasing to a point where it was resonating in my helmet and I couldn’t bear the same, 40km past now my ear starting to hurt – I felt a pain, so returning to Chennai with the same sound would be hell, started thinking of options as I didn’t want to transport fearing damage to panels, but now started to think of risking it. So started to explore options while riding, so started making calls and to my surprise none of the transport guys aren’t sure of it and never transported a vehicle before…. Now an idea flashed and called Ather to check how they transport the vehicle and asked for vendor details – but they aren’t sure, so requested a call back from Arjun from service – hoping he might help both ways (with identifying the cause of noise and also transport options), got a call after few messages and it appeared he isn’t sure of the noise thing when requested about the transport info he advised he need to check…
We reached pondi after a very long ride - my flight and other had 9 and 10 km left and destination was 12km which I was confident that we can reach – surprisingly Rahul flight have got 19km range left, so we had a backup option as well, but the other guy was not confident despite, so made a small stop for about 20min while I and Rahul took some pictures…
After ½ hr we reached the destination where we started charging the bikes and refreshed ourselves, now though we are tired Rahul was excited to got to pondi beach at night on Ather.
So we both headed to pondi beach at 11pm and enjoyed the seashore climate (particularly that breeze was awesome) for some time and decided to come back in the morning to see sunrise… which was awesome again.
Now we headed to Auroville to meet Debo from Kinisi e-mobility who ‘own’ Ather. He is trying to electrify fleet in Auroville, we had lot of chat on his experience influencing community to move towards clean tech and mobility…. His facility have got more than 250 cycles and a dozen of e-scooters, some are custom made for rental. Enthusiasm around that place for electric, solar and environment was nice. Later we been to Solar Kitchen to have lunch leaving our bikes to charge at kinisi…. This was again awesome
It was evening and we are planning the return and I have decided to transport my flight directly to Bangalore and booked a train ticked from Pondicherry. Debo was kind enough to refer a transport guy for me as he had transported his vehicle from Bangalore. So me headed to railway station after dropping the vehicle at transport
Later I learnt from Rahul they travelled for about 75km and charged (this time they took my advice) at some Dhaba on the highway and reached Chennai safely.
I might have left some details as its been too long now