Ather Rizta long term review, 4,500km report

Our long-term Rizta is finally back after a rather extended sabbatical. It hasn’t been used for a few months since Zaran reported the issue that sent it into limp mode repeatedly and resulted in it going back to the Ather service centre once again. The problem was diagnosed to be a wiring issue resulting from a rat bite, and it has now been ironed out. In the interim that the Rizta was away, its odo has crossed the 4,000km mark.

My daily commute to the office is a 34km round trip along the Western Express Highway, an ideal testing ground for any 2-wheeler. Since I joined Autocar nearly a year ago, I’ve been doing this on a bike that isn’t exactly built for city congestion, my personal Triumph Street Triple S. So, when Dinshaw offered me the Rizta, I jumped at the chance.

This is my first experience with electric mobility, and so far, it makes great sense for daily commuting. But it’s not without its quirks. On a petrol bike, running low on juice is never a concern; a brief halt will fix it. With an EV, things aren’t as easy.

On just my third day, I had 18km of range left for a 17km ride to work. Halfway through, I realised I was cutting it too close and had to locate a charger. I easily found one en route to the office, tucked behind a bus stop.

Ather’s widespread Grid network will help if you’re running low on juice.

After waiting for my turn behind a Vida owner (since both use Ather’s open-source connector), I plugged in. Fifteen minutes later, I was up from 3km to 25km of range. Besides that early brush with range anxiety, my time with the Rizta has been trouble-free, and it has taught me to be better planned.

At home, it shares garage space with an Activa 125, and thanks to its cavernous 34-litre boot, the Rizta has quickly become the default errand-runner. Also helpful are the wide seat and the nifty backrest, which have earned universal praise from pillions of varied sizes.What my pillions have not appreciated as much are the footpegs – or rather, their absence. The floorboard extends rearward to form the pegs, which look neat on the sporty 450s but feel impractical here.

Pillion footpegs are small and narrow, especially for a practical scooter like this.

Shortly after Diwali, our Rizta received an OTA update that unlocked the display’s touchscreen functionality. This greatly improves the feel-good factor and will be appreciated by owners who will find an unexpected improvement in their product well after purchasing it.

EVs have advantages like gaining new features after purchase via OTA updates.

One feature that is a double-edged sword is MagicTwist. It’s incredibly useful in stop-and-go traffic, though Dinshaw cautioned me not to combine it with the rear brake, as it can overload the rear wheel and cause it to lock up, especially on some of Mumbai’s notoriously low-grip roads. That’s exactly what happened one wet evening; instinct took over, and I used both systems together. The wheel locked up momentarily, but thankfully, nothing unfortunate happened!

MagicTwist is a boon in traffic but can catch you out if used with the rear brake.

For now, the Ather is running flawlessly, and more importantly, it has slashed my monthly commuting costs drastically from over Rs 4,000 in fuel to a fraction of that – the unequivocal advantage of any EV over an ICE vehicle!