Here, there and Ather

The visit to the Ather showroom captured Review here

The delivery happened on a weekend and before that the charger AtherDot was installed in my apartment.

If you like boardgames, Carcassonne in particular, you probably recognize the uncanny resemblance to meople!

The D Day
On the day of the delivery, one major advantage of Aadhar revealed itself. You get a Fame-2 subsidy per Aadhar number which is authenticated on the spot thru mobile OTP. A significant chunk of the onroad price of 1.31L is given back as subsidy 28K.

Day#1 Trial by Fire

After a quick visit to nearest temple and dropping the kids at home, I found a couple of excuses to take the Ather 450 for a spin. Then on the way back from a evening show in Phoenix mall, me and some of my friends in a car, decided to check out its prowess on a long empty stretch of Pallikkaranai road late in the night. Since I was not too sure about the braking power, I started conservatively and eventually picked up to a max sustainable speed of about 80kmph, peaked at 89kmph for my frame of 86kg. Decided to give it another test by adding a friend as pillion rider and still reached a speed for about 80kmph. 

All my doubts on the power of this thing were laid to rest. Though the speed was clearly limited to 80 by design, for most city rides this is a respectable upper limit.

Came home with 4km remaining in range - a very ambitious start for first day.

The Office commute:

6.5km one way, with kids school on the way. 90% of the way is slow moving city traffic and the rest is a blitz from last signal at SRP junction in OMR to my office.

- perfect demo for running in ECO mode in slow traffic, switching to RIDE for mid 30s to 40s and finally SPORT mode for the blitz. The closest analogy is 1/2 gears, 3/4 gear, top-gear riding in the three modes, even to the point of releasing the throttle while changing modes! One difference being you can choose top-gear Sports mode from 0 to 80 kmph as well.

The lazy math:

Range is 65 to 70 km per charge, 3 units per full charge, is less than ₹20 * 52 weeks is ₹1040. 65km is conveniently 5 days worth of commute.

Annual running cost comparison for office commute alone:

1040 for the EV

7630 for my 150cc bike

17140 for my diesel car

15600 for office cab 

Joy of listening to the noise and inhaling the fumes of all other polluting vehicles at SRP junction = ?

Now nothing irritates me more than those unnecessarily loud modified exhausts of those fat bikes, especially when you can kick ass ---- so silently.

The range:

Another analogy coming your way. Think of this as a Smartphone-on-Wheels and how you would plan for it's charging depending on how long it lasts on an average day's usage. If you have too little juice to last a day and assuming you cannot charge in office, you would ensure you plug it in the night. And let it charge for 3 or 4 hours and you would not care how long it takes till it reaches 100%. You use it for the city rides and never think of taking it for a weeklong roadtrip in some jungle. I'm still talking about the Ather. 

The ad on wheels:

On an average day, I am prepared to answer questions from at least one random stranger, fellow biker on the cost, range, battery life, max speed, motivation , inspiration, philosophy of owning an Ather 450. (Actually only the first 4 in that list, though I don't mind talking more if free coffee is offered!)

The user experience:

Just imagine your Honda Activa like performance with the silence of an electric train, and torque of an NTorq and sleekness of ApriliaSR150. Add Google maps navigation on the 7 inch screen and you get the picture.

As with most things these days, you can review most data on the dedicated Ather app in your smartphone and obsess about the predicted range and whether you can go to Mahabs daytour someday and return home in one full charge.

The Conclusion

A Indian startup making a two-wheeler equivalent of Tesla EV for Indian road conditions with associated high costs you pay for premium quality, battery management system and performance - is totally worth it - if fun city rides with reduced green-guilt is on your mind.

Inspirations of a fAther

After years of reading online reviews for Electric Vehicles, it's about time to write one.

But before that, the story of how I got here, is probably worth reading if it strikes a chord or two with You, Dear Reader!

Inspiration #1 - Free rides
Ever since the concept of Perpetual Motion Machines (and why it's impossible to construct one) was introduced in high-school Physics, I have always wondered how close we could get to building one. From that grew the idea that personal transportation should one day be possible without zero or low running costs. The key to that would be to hook up a renewable energy source like solar energy to a form of transport that can actually put that energy to use.

Inspiration #2 - Torque
Like most average Indian men, I too had this fascination to own and drive powerful bikes. Not the fill-it-shut-it-forget-it types that uncles with a keen interest in mileage prefer, but the ones that brings the adrenaline rush when you go full throttle.

My first bike was a grand old Honda Exclusive CM125 Japan model, which was a true war/work-horse and still managed a respectable 110kmph max speed in Expressways after 15 years of service to 4 owners including me. The kind of bike you buy for 800 dollars and sell for 1100 after using for many years, due to its Japanese original parts!
After returning to India, among the first Google searches was "fun bikes to ride under 1Lakh" and lot of reviews on Royal Enfield bikes. After testrides on RE Thunderbird, KTM 200 and finally settled on an All-Black Honda Trigger 150cc that has been with me for 5 years now.. The main reason was they agreed to deliver the bike in week and has sufficient power to reach early 90s in empty stretches in OMR.
In hindsight, one thing I didn't miss about RE is the loud noise, which many love to make even louder with custom exhausts. 
Out of curiosity, I test-drove Hero Photon, Okinawa Praise, Okinawa Ridge+, despite appearing to be very useful vehicles, reasonably priced and even having detachable batteries, they all lacked the zing in their rides to convince an average Indian biker.
With this biking background, any future two wheeler I would possess could not sacrifice too much on power.

Inspiration #3 - Father - Family man - Biker - Tree hugger
- Need to transport 2 kids to school regularly, making one of them sit on the fuel tank is not easy, as they grow taller
- Need to doing various errands and stop at various shops in narrow bylanes and going through start-stop traffic meant I had to lose the clutch/gear in a hurry and get ample leg-space to carry 20kg bag of groceries and not do acrobatics on road
- no car replaces the freedom of movement a bike offers in Indian roads, and not after you are used to it for so many years
- a sworn tree-hugger who wants to do his bit to save the world, so that someday his children won't inherit a sorry-state planet and ask "what were you guys thinking with all that greenhouse gas emissions, why did you ignore all the climate change scientists???"

There was only one answer to all the requirements as above, available to the average Indian biker in 2019  -
 Ather 450