Matter Aera First Ride Review | India’s First Electric Bike With A Gearbox!
The conversion story from Ice two wheelers to electrics in India has been mainly scooters and as enjoyable as some of them are a lot of us are hardcore motorcyclists at heart so if you do have been waiting for that perfect beginner electric bike the matter era is one of
The latest options for you in India and spoiler alert it’s a fun one now if you’re an early adopter you’d but obviously want something that stands out and the matter era that does it quite well it’s sporty it’s sharp it’s aggressive but all of that without being
Over the top or polarizing in fact it has a sense of Elegance to it something I quite like as for the fit and finish levels they’re acceptable from a distance but move closer and you’ll see some W spots and a couple of exposed wires something you would really like to
See on a bike for which you’re paying more than 2 lakh Rupees now while those might be acceptable what I definitely did not like was the charger cover it feels flimsy and has too much play when closed and the big panel gap on the top part of the cover it’s already giving me anxiety as to what will happen when it rains
Heavily something that is pretty much inevitable in most parts of our country on the other hand one thing I absolutely loved was the front storage compartment we might not show it but as motorcyclists are usually desperate for such storage compartments and this one it does not disappoint even with the
Charger in there’s just enough room for it to accommodate a smartphone as well as the key fob given that the bike has keyless entry it gave my mind so much peace knowing that the key fob was stored away in such a secure space instead of something like my jeans
Pocket where I might keep a normal key but maybe not a fancier key fob the Highlight though it has to be that motor it’s a 10.5 KW unit with a 105 kmph claim top speed as for the range mattera claims that with the 5 KW
Battery pack the era has a 125 km Real World Range charging the battery to 80% will take 5 hours while a full charge will take 6 hours the same times come down to 1.5 hours and 2 hours respectively with a fast charger Ecom mode it’s a proper hyper mileage one for
The days when you are on a battery crunch but City mode it’s nice it has talk and you can easily cruise at 50 to 60 Kamp which are usually the maximum coasting speeds in the city but if you want something more than just easy commuting sport is the one for you it
Nicely sit at 90 to 100 kmph ensuring that even your short Highway Johns are taken care of and in the city it has a good pull that’ll ensure you can Target all the little gaps that you want to on these open roads of buge I did maintain speeds of about 80 K mph
Continuously for about 15 to 20 km and did not see any kind of derating in the motor’s performance so yeah while this bike is meant to be a commuter it’ll definitely handle the short Highway johs that I talked about earlier nowall riding experience though it was hampered by this gearbox I mean
All of you complaining that electric bikes have no feel because of the lack of a gearbox well you’re fining an electri bike with a proper four-speed gearbox this one though it makes you wonder do you really need a gearbox on an electric bike now given the lack of an engine
There’s obviously no engine braking as you downshift so what the gearbox essentially does is that it unlocks a higher top speed for example in sports mode the bike does around 40 kmph in first gear and then you have to shift to the second gear to go up until about 60
Kmph post to which you have to shift in the third gear for around 80 K mph and then fourth gear ensures that you reach your top speed but my problem is given the lack of an engine noise I never know when I’m hitting the top speed of that
Particular gear for example in the first gear the bike pulls really nicely to about 38 39 kmph and then the moment it hits 40 kmph it’s like the bike hits a rev limiter and that honestly interrupts the exciting flow of acceleration and that is honestly quite annoying
You see the unique thing about riding an Eevee is that the moment you whack open the throttle the bike pulls to its top speed in an uninterpreted manner something that’s missing here yeah you do upshift in ic bikes but they have an engine that makes noises to let you know
When the red line is approaching and when you need to upshift something that’s again missing here and that means the matter era it’s less standed in the middle the solution a lot of you might say is to just slot it in fourth gear and ride it for that one uninterrupted
Pull right but the issue with that is that starting the bike in fourth gear doesn’t have the same kind of pull and excitement as the first gear it only starts pulling post about 30 kmph and that kind of defeats the purpose of an Eevee which is exciting acceleration right off the
Bat but otherwise the overall package is actually quite enjoyable whatever a couple of fast flowing Corners we Face the bike genuinely handled well and I enjoyed it we even faced some bad roads and the bike suspension felt nice and plush I do suspect this will be a sporty
But reasonably comfortable bike in the city the era is a 7-in touchscreen TFT that I quite liked as well of course you won’t be able to operate it with gloves on unless your gloves are touchscreen compatible but what I really liked was the response time touch it and you’ll
See that it’s not unnervingly quick but ALS also definitely not laggy the response time is just enough for it to feel very natural and the overall experience is very similar to that of using a smartphone in terms of features this 7-in TFT has pretty much everything you want right from practical bits like
Storing your documents Vehicle Health checkup and service reminders to the more nerdy stuff like your ride stats and even lean angles this console it has it all what I really liked was the the layout when you use the turn BYT navigation it’s simple and very clean
And while it does take up the entire screen it keeps displaying your gear position speed and the ride mode at the bottom left which are three of the things you do want to glance at every now and then that it I think the lack of Hill
Hold is a bit of a Miss given that slotting the bike in gear will not prevent it from Rolling managing this 169 Kil bike on an inclined surface could get a bit tricky and having experienced a good hillh hold system on our long-termer ather 450x I have
Realized that it makes things just so much more convenient so I think at this price point the era should have definitely gotten it as Well the matter era is actually built on a very very sweet platform the motor and the handling they’re definitely the standout bits for me and even the easy to use but feature loaded TFT console is very very nice the gearbox though that is my first and major complaint it
Prevents the era from having a seamless acceleration experience like eveve zood but the lack of an engine means the bike doesn’t speak to you like an ice bike would and that brings me to my second complaint a price tag of rupees 1.74 lakh for the base Wan means the matter
Error isn’t the best value for your money and that’s especially when you consider that bikes like the TVs Apache Rd 164 V the RDR 180 and even the very likable pulser n160 are all available for much less some money these things said Mata will soon be taking the era
All around India for test rides and the commencement of deliveries so if you are okay with the downsides that I talked about I would suggest go test ride this bike and see what you feel about India’s first electric bike with a Gearbox
The Matter Aera has been making waves for being India’s first electric bike with a gearbox, something a lot of you have been wanting. So does the gearbox add to the experience and do you even need it? Nishaad answers that and a lot more in this first ride review.
Host: Nishaad Joshi
DOP: Gaurav Chandrashekhar
Editor: Sumit Vanjarii
Don’t forget to check out the links below:
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Hero Xtreme 125R First Ride Review – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgHyz0upjrE
2024 Jawa 350 – The Best Jawa Ever! – First Ride Review – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwAYz0dsJxg
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