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2024 Ather Rizta : Our observations after a day of riding

29th May 2024, 18:11 by Aditya Nadkarni

The Rizta comes with a disc brake at the front and a drum brake at the rear. The setup works well and the bike stops without fuss.

Riding the Ather Rizta

The Ather 450 series are known for their very quick acceleration. The Rizta, however, is a lot more relaxed. In the Zip mode, it does move fast to get into the 60's, but it's not a sprinter. The focus of the bike is more on its "load" carrying capacity of passengers and groceries. But, it is in no way a problem. The bike carried my 100+ weight quite comfortably.

The performance is irritating only while riding in the Eco mode as the full focus is on squeezing out as many kilometres as possible. I would use this mode only if I am far away from a charging station and have no other option.

During the early morning ride, there were a lot of stray dogs roaming around in packs. In one particular instance, one of them broke loose and decided to have some fun with me. The dog ran beside the bike and I pushed down on the accelerator. Then it felt like I was in a slow-motion movie with the bike taking its own sweet time to accelerate. Luckily the dog was just having fun. But I did not go back to the eco mode after this. Two-wheelers are literally at the bottom of the traffic hierarchy. Giving up the ability to quickly accelerate is a handicap that I am unable to live with.

On the right-hand side is my favourite button - the reverse gear. This is so cool. I wish every bike has this feature. The speed in reverse is understandably quite limited. The second button is for toggling between the 2 riding modes - Zip for normal riding and Smart Eco for when range is extremely critical. The Eco mode severely limits both the top speed and acceleration:

The belt drive is very silent and gives a comfortable ride:

Refinement & NVH

Electric vehicles are super silent. There are zero vibrations when the motor is idling. You literally have to look at the console to see that the "Motor is on". A slight twist of the accelerator and it moves forward with a barely audible whine. On a completely empty road, I had to take off my helmet to actually hear the engine. I am not even sure if I should call this an engine. It is a motor and it spins. But there is definitely a connection between the scooter and the rider. It certainly has a soul and lends itself to a connection that we all yearn for from our vehicles.

The refinement is top-notch. If you want to feel nothing but the wind, this certainly pulls those strings in your heart.

Suspension and Handling

The Rizta comes with a telescopic fork suspension at the front and a monoshock at the rear. The setup is on the firmer side. It handled most speed breakers and potholes well, but being a scooter, the Rizta is not meant to take them at anything more than 15-20 km/h.

On very bad potholes or improperly designed speed breakers, there is rough, bouncy feel. The monoshock quickly smoothens things though. Overall, The bike is very well-balanced and the tyres provide a good amount of grip which improves control. The tyres and suspension are able to fully dampen the vibrations from the road. Since there are no vibrations from the electric motor, the comfort level is further enhanced.

Telescopic fork suspension at the front:

Tyres provide sufficient grip:

Braking

The Rizta comes with a disc brake at the front and a drum brake at the rear. The setup works well and the bike stops without fuss. The skid control feature allows you to brake on any kind of surface without any drama. The scooter held its line even under harsh braking on a very sandy stretch.

That being said, with the "magic twist" feature, I hardly bothered using the brakes for slowing down. Simply twisting the accelerator in the upward direction which causes the regen to kick in and this rapidly slows the bike down.

Disc brake at the front: