Bagalkot to Bharatmala — an Engineer & a Biker
Akshay’s Ride through the Himalayas
Here is Akshay’s account of his ride on the Mantis with Gautam
Akshay joined Orxa Energies way back as an intern, to build the Mantis. On the way though, he’s built our battery systems, worked on several defence & aerospace projects, and leads our Special Energies Systems division. Oh, he did get to work on the Mantis too, some of the time :)
On the Electric Bharatmala, Akshay rode some of the more challenging mountainous stretches, from Dehradun to Jammu, via Srinagar. A ride of about 1500+km in the crown of India. Here is the story of his ride, in his words…
Dehradun (Paonta sahib) to Solan (Shimla).
This was the most beautiful and well built road I have seen. Beautiful hills to look at, fast corners to ride on, and cool temperature throughout. The Mantis was feeling at home on this stretch — riding the Mantis was such a breeze here. The banking on the road was wonderful. Hardly any traffic. I’m definitely going there again.
Challenges
The Motor sensor got damaged at Jammu. Until then, everything in the Himalayas went pretty well. Immediately, the team back at Bangalore was on continuous call to help us on-road to find a solution. Initially, we confirmed the damage on the sensor. Once that was done, we had huge task of getting parts from Bangalore.
Disassembly of both the bikes were done in 6 hours after the incident. Simultaneously, Orxa team at Bangalore packed all the items required and JJ flew with them on the same day to Jammu. He reached Jammu next morning at 8am. Assembly was started immediately and completed in 10 hours. Thinking on the feet and acting at a very fast pace helped us overcome the intense incident at Jammu.
Thinking on the feet and acting at a very fast pace helped us overcome the intense incident at Jammu.
Impressions
I met truck drivers at Banihal on the way to Jammu who were transporting Kashmiri apples to Tumkur and Chitradurga. About 15 truck drivers got stuck in a narrow road where the traffic had stopped and I had stopped for a swap.
So, we started a discussion on how the electric vehicles will cost less eventually during usage. This started a debate among the truck drivers. Surprisingly, many Truckers were pro-Electric vehicles, as it would help reduce emissions and that running costs are less.
Then they bought me a Kashmiri pink tea and girda roti. Apparently, the place where we stopped is the last place where you get this and anywhere south of this place, the truckers say it’s hard to find. Banihal is the entry point to Kashmir Valley.
Students
UPES dehradun — I was amazed at the college campus and how advanced the Students and the faculty were. Simply put, the way the students looked at the Mantis was completely different. None of them looked at it from a customer point of view. They all were engineering students or design creators. So they looked at it and started discussing on how to build EV ecosystem in a better way. Be it battery technology or be it manufacturing motorcycle frame using aluminium. Everyone had some opinion to add and they all had a legit question on how we reached Dehradun without major breakdown.
They all had a legit question on how we reached Dehradun without major breakdown.
Food
Best food that I had was at Tawi restaurant at Udhampur. The restaurant is on a cliff which has Tawi river and other side of the river there is a huge mountain with a village on it. Rajma chawal is very special in Jammu as some of the best rajma is grown in Jammu — Ramban belt. This rajma chawal was dipped completely in pure ghee. Definitely a healthy treat. We felt refreshed and full. Hence managed to ride till 10 in the night to reach Srinagar after this food.
Support from the war room
Also would like to add a special mention to the Highway Delite team. The hotel we stayed in Pathankot was really good. The staff were very co-operative. We just told them all the steps to be done to charge the batteries. All the staff helped us unload the batteries and get it to their maintainence room and put it for charging and there. The next morning they loaded all the packs back in car. The breakfast was supposed to start at 8. But they started it earlier as we had the plan of starting at 7.30.
Orxa Energies’ mission is to rapidly electrify all transport. We build performance Electric Vehicles & the associated Energy Ecosystem. We believe that battery swap will rapidly electrify shared mobility. Our first vehicle is the Mantis — a fully-electric performance motorcycle, designed to fit seamlessly into your lifestyle.
We also build powerful Battery Packs that manage the specific challenges of performance vehicles — longevity, thermals, weight, and volume. Our battery packs are already in pilots with our customers
