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Among the biking community, the ‘K2K ride’ is considered one of the most challenging. While this route is usually taken by bikers riding high-powered motorcycles, one moto vlogger decided to step it up a notch.
Girish Shet, who runs a Youtube channel ‘Weekend On Wheels’, took up the challenge to ride a Bounce Infinity E1, an electric scooter, from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, or K2K. Shet went a mile further and altered his ride to end on one of the highest motorable roads in the world in Khardung-La in Ladakh.
The ride pushed the boundaries of the electric scooter to limits untested before. The drive to Khardung-La, Shet admitted about trying to break the scooter by riding it through terrains it wasn’t built for. But the Bounce Infinity E1 did not complain or give up and lived up to its name.
“I have done off-roading, climbed rock mountains, ridden on rocky and sandy roads, yet the scooter didn’t complain. I believe it outperformed itself when it took me through a sand storm while heading from Kargil to Leh,” Shet recalled.
It is now clear that a well-built e-scooter can endure rain, dust and even sand storms provided the journey is planned to include enough breaks and charging time, which Shet did meticulously.
Future-friendly EV ride
This ride also means that in the future, EVs can be ideal for touring and not just city hops. With the central and local governments focusing on developing charging infrastructure, the future for EV tourers is promising. Swappable batteries are also picking pace in the new generation of EVs to add convenience to conveyance. When there are enough charging stations or laybys for e-scooters to swap batteries, smaller EVs can go the distance. Innovations in the swappable battery infrastructure and technology will not only aid EV tourers, but also help in adding more miles per charge. The new generation of electric scooters are coming with greater range and power, pushing the boundaries even further.
Girish Shet, who runs a Youtube channel ‘Weekend On Wheels’, took up the challenge to ride a Bounce Infinity E1, an electric scooter, from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, or K2K. Shet, also went a mile further and altered his ride to end on one of the highest motorable roads in the world in Khardung-La in Ladakh
For the K2K ride, since essentials and extra batteries couldn’t be carried on the Bounce E1, there was a van trailing it with a camera crew and technicians, equipped with essentials, luggage and extra batteries.
Shet told inmathi.com that he had taken six batteries with him including the one that the scooter ran on. The team would charge them all overnight and use them next day. Considering the cost per unit of electricity, this whole EV ride could have consumed no more than Rs. 3,000-4,000 worth of power, the vlogger said.
Girish posing next to the fabled Magnetic Hill in Ladakh on day 17 of his journey
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Ride Ruby, ride!
The veteran vlogger chose the Bounce Infinity E1 because it had an option to swap batteries allowing him to cover more miles in a single day. Due to its appearance and red colour, Shet christened the scooter ‘Ruby’. It helped him cover about 250 kilometers a day using power from all the six batteries. On the highways, Ruby had to run mostly on the high power mode to match the speeds.
The achievement of this vehicle however, was not in riding on highways but the way it endured the roads and off-roads in the Ladakh region. Ruby faced roads full of gravel, dirt, slush, sand, and rocks — in fact, not what most people would recognise as roads at all. Yet she stayed the course and in style, underlines Shet.
The ability to swap batteries on the Bounce Infinity E1 was a boon on K2K, starting from Kanyakumari through the Golden Quadrilateral. Ruby and Shet covered 4,340 kilometers through 11 states across the country. All this, over a period of just 19 days (18 June to 6 July). Shet said the whole journey took 83 battery swaps with each fully charged battery giving an average mileage of 70 kilometers.
Aces high after Ruby and Girish made it to the “Top of the World”, Khadrung-La at 17,982 feet above sea level.
One for the records
Shet, an avid biker from Mangaluru, in Karnataka, has been doing long distance rides on motorbikes and reviewing the vehicles. He started vlogging in 2017 under the tag, ‘Weekend on Wheels’. He also has a vlog about classic vehicles called ‘Never out of Fashion’ in addition to biking vlogs and reviews of high-end bikes.
The ability to swap batteries on the Bounce Infinity E1 was a boon on K2K, starting from Kanyakumari through the Golden Quadrilateral
In the latter half of 2021, a heart attack took him out of vlogging action for a few weeks. But in December 2021, he was back on the roads, riding to Lonavala with his vlog series, ‘Reclaiming Myself Ride’. He then went on to attend the India Bike Week or IBW in Goa.
When he yearned for a new challenge, he picked the K2K ride on an EV. With that amazing ride, Shet hopes to get into the ‘India Book of Records’. He has applied for verification of his record and is expecting the confirmation soon.
Recently, an electric multi-purpose vehicle (e-MPV) from the Chinese company ‘BYD’ made it to the India Book of Records for the longest journey by an electric car. Two auto enthusiasts, Aashish Bhardwaj and Girish Karkera drove 2,203 kilometers on the BYD e6 electric vehicle to make it to the record books.
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