How I successfully managed to do a 140 km road trip with my Ather 450X

This Pune-Lonavala was my longest trip yet, relying on Ather's charging network all around.

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Did a 140 km trip to Lonavala from Pune on my Ather 450X. This was the longest trip ever and we relied on Ather's charging network for recharging

We (wife and I) left Pune leisurely around 12.15 pm. Halted once to put on rain gear, and a second time for a tea break, but the stall didn't have any tea so moved on. Reached Lonavala's wax museum (Ather Grid point) in about 1 hour 20 mins. The total distance was 53.2 km. I rode in Sport mode and had 5 km of range left.

Decided to grab a quick bike at the Mapro Garden (800 m away). However, despite coming back after an hour, we realised that the scooter was not getting charged. Another Ather owner suggested removing and replugging the charging adapter which fixed the issue. Wasted another 10-15 minutes here.

With SoC now at 50%, left to head towards Tiger Point. 14km one way and a steep climb. Went to the top, took some photos and had tea, Maggi and some corn. Came down back to the Lonavala charging point with about 12 km range left. Kept the scooter once again for charging and saw the Wax Museum.

Charged up to 80% this time with no problem. With Ather now making charging paid, it makes sense to remove the 80% limit.

Left around 7.30 pm and reached Emerald Resort for a top-up. Decided to have dinner here by the poolside. I covered the 33.2 km distance in 40 mins. The balance of 25 km to home took us around 40 mins. There was some traffic, but nothing too bad. (overall efficiency for the trip was 40 Wh/km with an average speed of around 45 km/h)

All in all a good trip, and I came up highly impressed with the scooter.

Had to repeat this trip yesterday. Did the leg to Lonavala with a range getting 0 at the place I was supposed to go. This was cutting it too close. The last 5% SoC degraded quite fast. I left home without a full charge and topped up for 15 minutes at Emerald Resort. Should have waited 5 more minutes in hindsight. The Wax Museum charger was occupied so decided to move on to my destination. This was what I miscalculated.

I decided to slow charge at a friend's place to 100% using my portable charger. Came home in Ride mode with occasional use of Sport mode. This was a much more efficient trip = 31 Wh/km (top speed 69 km/h and avg. 51 km/h). This was also my longest non-stop trip on Ather with 55 km.

Some key observations:

1. Range on the dashboard is very accurate and reliable
2. Sport mode is the way to go esp., on fast sections
3. Headlights are terrible at night. Had to keep speed around 50 km/h for safety's sake.
4. Solid handling. Never faced an issue even with high winds. My Vespa was much more affected by wind than the Ather.

Leaving this picture we clicked once home:

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