[pmhate]

Grit and Grace to Electrify the Queen of Hills

Here’s our short but venturesome story on how me and my wife planned and travelled from Gurgaon to Mussoorie (~320 KMs), spent 2 days and rode back to Gurgaon on the first anniversary of our Revolt RV400.
I am going to use ‘we’ for most of the below story because we experienced it together. And, my life cum travel partner wrote this story together.

Prologue: -

After spending problematic 15 years with parent’s BS-3 Diesel Car, we were aiming for Non-Geared BS-6 scooters for my daily office commute in 2019. Looking at the attractive pricing and 8 years battery warranty, we brought home Revolt’s RV400 in October 2019. Together we have had easily achieved 130 KMs of range in the NCR's plain roads with 10% SoC still leaving in the battery. Cumulative Range in the moutains was still a mystery for us then...

Due to COVID-19 Lockdowns and then Unlocks, we have been delaying our summer trips to the mountains for over 6 months. We somehow managed to pass through extreme Delhi summers and were still craving to de-stress ourselves in the mountains.

On 20th September 2020, we came across a major news that Uttarakhand Govt. had removed mandatory requirement of RT-PCR Covid Test report for visitors in the state (apart from Kedarnath and some other surrounding districts). We immediately started looking out for more details on the same.

From Gurgaon, any first hill station towards North-East direction in the Himalayan Range is around 300 kms away from here. Since we had already been to Shimla and Nainital last year, we settled with Mussoorie as our destination, being one of the closest to our home.

We watched a lot of videos to understand police permissions, documents at Border check-post and hotels and noticed at that same time, every other YouTube Moto Vlogger had started showing how Uttarakhand border has opened up and started posting their travel experience in and around the state. Somehow, we too wanted to ride in the mountains instead of driving to the tight and steep tourist spots in Mussoorie, but we felt the biggest limitation of any short-range Electric Two-Wheeler i.e. lack of fast charging support and charging infrastructure. Regardless of that, we were stubborn enough to do it by hook or by crook.

Planning: -

1. Hotel Booking - In order to apply for Uttarakhand E-pass we needed a confirm hotel booking. So we first booked a better place to stay where the Covid safety rules are followed and we can also charge our battery for at least thrice during our stay.
I avoid staying at a hotel on Mall Roads of any North Indian hill stations because almost all the city councils are charging hefty entry and exit fees on Mall Road these days especially for out-of-state private vehicles. So we booked a hotel on Library Road which is very close to Mall Road at walkable distance.

2. E-pass Registration - We registered ourselves and the vehicle on the Smart City Dehradun Website uploading the hotel bookings and ID proofs. I received a call from the Uttarakhand Govt. office to confirm the same and within 24 hrs our epass was available for download. This is mandatory as on 1 Oct 2020 to avoid any problems while checking-in the hotel.

3. Mi Portable Air Compressor - Tyre pressure affects overall range. We maintained 30-36 PSI for this trip (little over the recommended tyre pressure) due to extra luggage we were carrying. This device fits in perfectly on the top of battery in the tray and can also be charged with the given USB-A charger port on the motorcycle itself.

4. Tubeless tyre puncture kit - Route we had chosen is well crowded during the day with a lot of small towns on the way for find any tyre shop to fix a puncture. But still we kept a Tubeless Tyre Puncture Kit handy.

5. 16 Amp Extension Cable – Advantage of having a removable battery in RV400 is take it out and charge it anywhere on the go. But charger cable can be short at some places, so we made our own extension cable box from these 3 things one can easily get from local electrical shop. 16Amp Plug, 16Amp Socket box with on/off Button, 5-meter long 2.5mm 3-Core Havells Cable, just in case of socket at charge point is too far ground/away from our reach.

6. Luggage – Considering 4day trip, we kept our luggage minimal and decided to hang it over the saree guard and tighten it to rear grab handle using two bungee cords (80rs).

This is how our final setup looked like.

7. Charging stations -

Dedicated Charging Stations - To counter the charging hurdle, we started looking out for dedicated charging station apps over the internet.

Following are the apps we referred –

1. Google Maps
2. MOVE by MapMyIndia
3. Recharge India
4. ElectreeFi
5. ChargeGrid
6. PlugNGO

After contacting over phone to most of the charging stations outside of Delhi NCR, they were either unavailable at the said location nowadays or under maintenance. Those available were having AC Fast Charger and Type 2 charging port but not a simple 16A Wall Socket.

Restaurants and Dhabas – From Maps, we tried reaching to around 45 restaurants and dhabas en route, if they can support us for charging our vehicle while we have food at their place. Many of them required a lot of explanation of difference in 5Amp and 15Amp plugs with earthing and weren't really sure about if they can support us.

Electric 2,3-Wheeler Dealerships – Without naming them, two of the dealers agreed to provide us charging at their store without any charges at Muzaffarnagar and Roorkee. Finally, we saw things are moving in our direction and revived our confimed hopes.

Community Charging – From Recharge India app, we came across a wonderful family, who invited us to charge at their sustainable solar home in Dehradun.

Hotels and Resorts – One of the hotel on Meerut Bypass road agreed to provide us charging socket for 4 hours at 100rs for our onward journey. With no time left in our hand, we agreed to their offer and started packing bags.
For the return journey we arranged another Resort where we had dinner while charging.

Relatives – One of my friend’s relatives live in Dehradun so that was sorted. Many Thanks to their hospitality and delicious dinner they offered. We will always remember the pahadi hospitality.

Journey Details: -

Onward Journey
Route – Gurgaon – Meerut – Muzaffarnagar – Roorkee – Dehradun – Mussoorie

Day 1 (Late Night) –

Gurgaon to Meerut - (99 KMs)
We left Gurgaon late night at 10 PM to avoid rush hour traffic in Delhi and reached Meerut 12AM on Day 2 with only 10% left covering 99KMs from Gurgaon in Mode 1. Stayed overnight at the hotel and left in the morning 7AM.

Day 2 –

Meerut to Muzaffarnagar - (60 KMs)
We reached Muzaffarnagar in Mode 1 at 8.30 AM with 58% still left and 60kms done from Meerut.

Muzaffarnagar to Roorkee - (56 KMs)
We charged the battery for 45minutes and left Muzaffarnagar at 9.30 AM with 65% battery in Mode 2.
Due to some political rally at Sisona, we had to take detour of 10kms more via Deoband to Roorkee which somehow disturbed our plan but reached Roorkee safely with 8% battery at 11.30 AM.

Roorkee to Dehradun (Via Chhutmalpur Bypass) – (72 KMs)
Charged battery till 90% only in 3.5hrs and did not waste ~45-50 minutes extra to finish last 10% of slow charging. 25 mins of power cut in Roorkee made us wait a bit more. We left Roorkee at 4 PM.

Road is plain till Mohand and then continual incline towards Dehradun starts that consumed a bit more SoC than expected. So, we plan to cover 50% distance at 50-52km/h on plains and 50% distance of gradual inclines on Mode 2 too. We reached Dehradun with 15% battery left at 6.30 PM.

Dehradun to Mussoorie – (35 KMs)
From Kishanpur Chowk, Dehradun to Mussoorie, it was going to be a constant steep incline to 6000ft in just 25kms. Keeping in mind the 10kg luggage and a pillion behind, we expected 1/3rd range per 1% of SoC. So we needed (25x3)% for inclines + 10% till K. Chowk + 10% reserve = ~95% to reach 35km distance to Mussoorie.
Charged battery till 92% in 3.5 Hrs and left Dehradun at 10 PM.
Reached Mussoorie at 11.15 PM with 10% SoC left.

As soon as we reached our hotel near Library Chowk, we crashed on to our bed and praised to dear god for providing us such a comfy soft bed with cozy duvet to get heavenly sleep in that night.

Visiting Mussoorie -
Day 3

By keeping motorcycle at the hotel parking and battery charging in the room, we strolled around Mall Road in the early morning, explored the city center, Camel’s back road and had breakfast at famous Lovely Omelette Centre which easily took our 3-4 Hrs. Meanwhile the battery was getting fully charged at our room.
Had lunch at hotel, took some rest and headed towards Lal Tibba in Landour for sunset views.

This is how RV400 climbs up to the top -

https://youtu.be/WJEXUH59S8k

Landour is about 984 ft (300 m) above Mussoorie. Road towards Lal Tibba is narrow, too steep even for torquey diesels and often occupied with parked cars on barely 1-1.5 lane road. When I reached Gun Hill Point, one old XUV500 had already lost its clutch plate and blocked the complete road for both side traffic.


Near Chardukan Chowk

Being a biker, we had enough space to squeeze through the gaps and climb up some distance but there were few steep patches (probably over 25%) where even single rider cannot climb with Revolt. We had to get down, walk beside it for 20-50 meters and then move ahead.

Below is the link to the video -

https://youtu.be/d3_AYn5QGr0

View from the top of Lal Tibba Scenic Point

View from Cafe Ivy

On the way back we had these amazing views of Landour, Mussoorie and Dehradun City on the left.

Day 4

Early morning, we headed to George Everest House. Here, we made a short video of maintaining the golden silence of the forest.

Below is the link to the video

https://youtu.be/Ogdpz2w_v38

Took some more beautiful pictures of the valley while having cup of coffee from nearby shops. Then headed back to our hotel.

After substantial sized lunch at Kalsang Restaurant and some rest, we headed to Kempty Falls which is around 15kms downhill (at 4500ft) from Mussoorie. RV400 consumed just 1% battery initially for 1 km and gained 2% SoC due to regeneration during 15km downhill.

On the way to Kempty, we were unable to visit Shedup Choephelling Buddhist Temple from the inside due to COVID-19 rules but surprisingly the Kempty waterfall and ropeway to waterfall was open for tourists.

RV400 consumed around 29% SoC for going 15kms uphill from Kempty to Mussoorie.

Due to long weekend in 1st Week of October, Mussoorie was flocked tourists from nearby states. We were not surprised by the crowd but hesitated to have dinner at crowded popular restaurants on mall road.

Traffic Scenes Near Library Chowk

Summed up our night with sumptuous dinner at Little Llama Café and fully charged the battery at night for the return journey.

Return Journey Route – Mussoorie - Dehradun - Roorkee - Muzaffarnagar - Meerut - Gurgaon
Day 5
Mussoorie to Dehradun – (35KMs)
We loaded our luggage to the bike, thanked hotel staff to allow us charge the battery without any additional charges and with warm feelings, started going downhill at 7 AM with 100% battery.

For the next 31kms till Dehradun, SoC didn’t even drop a single percent.

Dehradun to Roorkee - (70 KMs)
We had enough juice to reach Roorkee without stopping for a charge. But we still decided to say quick hello to Mr. Raman who also owns a Mahindra e2O, is courteous enough to lend his 15Amp community charge point to the EV owners based on his solar setup.
We also saved some more percentage of SoC on the way to Roorkee till Mohand.

Roorkee to Muzaffarnagar to Meerut - (Total 115 KMs)
Since we were having around 30% charge left when we reached at Roorkee and Muzaffarnagar both the times, we had to wait only 2.5 and 2 Hrs respectively for charging.

Meerut to Gurgaon – (90 KMs)
In the last leg, charged battery till 94% , rode in Mode 1&2 for 50% each on total route.

Day 6 (Around Midnight)
We reached Gurgaon at our home with 10% SoC left at 1AM and we concluded our journey here.

How RV400 Performed During the Ride: -

1. Headlight throw in high beam was too useful to corner in extremely dark patches.
2. Motor performance was appreciable since we didn’t face any power loss and lag which could be a case due to downshifts in ICE Vehicles.
3. 98% of hilly roads were conquerable with it on Mode 1 and 2 itself by us. Only the ones extremely steep need some more practice by gaining suitable momentum on the go.
4. Braking performance was adequate. I felt confident while riding on extremely steep downhill.
5. MRF Rubber offered tractable grip to counter sharp bends, precipitous wet roads.
6. Got Consistent range throughout the journey even when battery temperature reached 43degC (as shown in the MyRevolt App) since we were riding, charging and discharging back to back immediately after riding (which is not suggested as per the manual).
7. Seat cushioning and angle isn’t that particularly good for long rides on RV400, so the seat needs some modifications.

Epilogue: -

It is not impossible to do long routes on short range EVs but we look at this as an opportunity to understand the challenges from planning phase of finalizing the charge points to finding the sweet spot when and till what % of SoC we should charge to make optimum use of our time and speed of the EV to be able to munch maximum no. of miles on long routes.

It took us 18 Hours to reach the destination and same way back home with a lot of patience which otherwise would have taken only 6 Hours by car and 7 Hrs by Public Transport.
A lot of our close friends and relatives had criticized our decision to do this on the E-Motorcycle but also later appreciated our determination to execute this in a day.

As on today, India is definitely not ready with charging stations on major highways apart from the ones in the Delhi like Tier 1 cities. But we feel that this should not stop one from having such adventures because patience is a virtue.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

Epic adventure.

Somehow had forgotten about the Revolt RV400. COVID lockdowns and tensions started soon after the launch and the hype died down pretty soon. Glad to read your report - and that range of 130kms in NCR usage does sound very promising as a daily runner. But you have pushed it well beyond all that! Hats off to your wife too.

Surprised to read that you had to literally push the bike up steep slopes though. Revolt had made headlines with the huge torque figure (typical of electric motors) IIRC - I would have expected it to climb even if at a slower pace.

Have a lot of questions on the bike - starting with regen effectiveness downhill - both for charging as well as braking. Hope you consider an ownership report as well.

PS: Do also check out this adventure by Hemanth Anand on this Ather 450 - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...her-450-a.html (Bangalore to Mysore via New York, on an Ather 450!)

[Iyencar]

Fantastic! I am pretty sure that the electric vehicle adoption rate will pick up big time in the 2 wheeler segment before the 4 wheeler one. Could you please share an ownership review of the bike. I keep forgetting this manufacturer exists.
Amazing: 320 km round trip in an e-bike on the hills no less.
Mind blowing: There are wives out there who can fit their overnight stuff in a luggage bag this small.
You learn something new everyday.

[klgiridhar]

Amazing writeup Sir. Absolutely loved it and was eye-opening at the same time.
As you aptly said, we need a bit of patience to do such trips at the moment.

We are still really far from going all electric but we will get there some day. I honestly feel that if we want to go all electric by 2030, government should take inspiration from people like Raman to set up solar charging stations at every big village and town (You will then have a charging station approximately for every 20km). Almost every area of India receives 300+ days of sunlight a year and we can easily harness that energy and then slowly upgrade them to DC fast chargers (Big cities will anyway get them right from the start). Battery tech is another area which also needs revolutionary change.

But I am optimistic that we will get there, especially after seeing examples of Jio where the whole nation was years away from 4G and with the oncoming of Jio, everyone immediately lapped up and jumped on the bandwagon . All we need is an all electric revolution, just like 4G revolution.

[hemanth.anand]

This would be my definition of a "Romantic long drive"...not even the sound of an engine to disturb the couple

Wondeful travelogue and thanks for sharing.

I feel that our country will adapt to this Electrification change quite fast. If anything...demonetisation is a great example of how we Indians are good at adapting to change. The helping nature we have, the Jugaad oriented brains and the knack with which we can make money out of everything will all be helpful in this I feel. We'll soon have charging point in many places...restaurants,public places. Weve still a long way to go but I estimate that in 5 years we'll not have range anxiety at all.

As CrAzY dRiVeR has written, please start an ownership review

[WhiteSierra]

WOW. What an amazing and unique travelogue. It would be great if Revolt came with a 200 km range battery pack. You saved up the fuel bills but had to wait patiently for the battery to charge, you made good use of time while the battery was charging too. This travelogue is something unique, going on a long journey that too with your wife with uncertain battery range which causes anxiety, but you handled it well and the bike / battery pack did not give you any unexpected and bad surprises. As you said, the charging stations should be more in India, along the highways in next 10 years. I think EVs and battery charging points will increase in the coming years and I really wish longer range battery packs will be developed for lesser costs as the prices of batteries are decreasing over time. I first saw Revolt review on Powerdrift and was awestruck with it's design and styling. This thread took it to an other level. Wish you many more happy kms with your Revolt RV.

[deepfusion]

Courageous. That's the first word that came to mind upon reading through your adventure. Without an established infrastructure for electric vehicles, you have successfully done your trip. Please share your ownership review also. What do you feel about your life with an all electric vehicle? would you recommend buying electric vehicles?

Look forward to your responses.

[Biker Ram]

Congrats on the bold and adventurous trip. For me such trip would have been purely a Proof-of-Concept, that it 'can' be done. You guys planned it well and completed successfully. And hats off to you both for mutually agreeing to do such a trip in the first place!

As CrAzY dRiVeR pointed out surprised to see you had to walk the bike on some occasion. What is the torque figure of ReVolt? One site on Google says it's 54NM, and the other says 170NM. Even if it's 54nm it should have been easily able to carry at least one person given that the torque is available at any RPM.

[Sivacar]

Wow, Sort of a ride only one can dream about in an E Bike.

Excellent write up, it was actually inspirational.

Thanks

[pmhate]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Epic adventure.

Somehow had forgotten about the Revolt RV400. COVID lockdowns and tensions started soon after the launch and the hype died down pretty soon. Glad to read your report - and that range of 130kms in NCR usage does sound very promising as a daily runner. But you have pushed it well beyond all that! Hats off to your wife too.

Thank you for kind words.
Prior to this ride, we had done few short runs over the roads in Aravalli mountain range near Faridabad, Nuh and Sohna, Haryana to replicate the operating conditions, how it climbs and how much it consumes. But yes, this was beyond all that because ascending in the hills at an average speed of 20-30 kmph for even a kilometer feels too much distance to cover.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Surprised to read that you had to literally push the bike up steep slopes though. Revolt had made headlines with the huge torque figure (typical of electric motors) IIRC - I would have expected it to climb even if at a slower pace.

Originally Posted by Biker Ram

As CrAzY dRiVeR pointed out surprised to see you had to walk the bike on some occasion.

This was my first time I rode to such roads that too on an electric motorcycle.
Now, I could only guess following reasons due to which it may have happened.

1. GVW of this motorcycle is 150kg (2 Persons) + 108 kg (Weight of Motorcycle) = 258 kgs.
   Considering our weight and luggage; payload was ~175 kg + 108 kg + Gravity!
   
2. Before I start to ascend, I didn't gain enough momentum for the steepest patch of road in sight.
   
3. I was panicked a bit due to traffic situations on the narrow curves, so I kept my speed minimal and lost momentum.
   
4. In the video it may not be very clear about the gradient but it was too steep to carry both of us from 0 speed once we stop and try to go. Probably over 25%.
   
5. I didn't give Mode 3 (Sports Mode) a try to utilize the highest potential of the motor, could be due to the fear of causing a wheelie on slope.
   In general, I had never used Mode 3 at Slow Speed on plains because it provides healthy amount of torque and throttle becomes more sensitive to inputs.

Originally Posted by Biker Ram

What is the torque figure of ReVolt? One site on Google says it's 54NM, and the other says 170NM.

Though Revolt hasn't officially published Torque figures, your numbers might be right as per some websites. Lower number is torque at motor and higher is torque at wheels.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Have a lot of questions on the bike - starting with regen effectiveness downhill - both for charging as well as braking. Hope you consider an ownership report as well.

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

As CrAzY dRiVeR has written, please start an ownership review

Originally Posted by Iyencar

Could you please share an ownership review of the bike.

I would definitely consider sharing it, would need some more time to put it in good shape.

[Harshal.Bhosale]

Wow, this is some really adventurous stuff! Kudos to you for planning this journey and seeing it through, and your better half for supporting it! Time to show this to my wife and convince her to take on more adventurous journeys in our Model 3 (I keep hearing complaints about how "we have to plan around the limitations of the car")!

[vinya_jag]

Originally Posted by pmhate

[center][h3]
It took us 18 Hours to reach the destination and same way back home with a lot of patience which otherwise would have taken only 6 Hours by car and 7 Hrs by Public Transport.

Thanks for sharing. Thanks for even trying.
I remember, we shifted to our newly built apartment, we were the first ones to shift, and there was the security. First few months were tough, there were lift problems, water taps left open in other houses, internet, basically everything. Your experience is very much similar, I feel. You would have gained a lot of experiences.

Also, we have started cycling. Now, it doesn't matter how slow we reach. We take 2 hours and a bit to reach the airport. We love every curve now, every flyover taken, every incline we climb. And being slower than a car, doesn't matter anymore

[raptor_diwan]

Great travelogue, buddy! By the way, is removing the battery a complicated process? Does it require much time or specific tools, or is it a quick and straightforward task?