u/Nervous_Ostrich8903

I live in a village, so commuting to the city for work is unavoidable. My daily travel is around 50–60 km (25–30 km one way), which is why I bought an Ather Rizta S. My goal wasn't fancy features—I just wanted to save on petrol for my daily commute.

After an OTA update, my scooter started randomly limiting itself to 30 km/h after around 25 km of riding. It spent several days at the service center before the issue was resolved.

The scooter is working fine now, but my confidence isn't.

Now every time I hear about a new OTA update, I wonder if another software issue could leave me stranded again. Since this is my primary commuting vehicle, that uncertainty worries me more than the cost of electricity or petrol.

I'm now considering two options:

1. Keep the Rizta and hope it remains reliable.

2. Sell it, accept some financial loss, buy a lower-cost EV for daily commuting, and keep a petrol bike as a reliable backup.

For people who commute long distances on an Ather every day:

- Have software updates ever made you lose confidence in the scooter?

- Have you faced recurring OTA-related issues?

- If you were commuting 50–60 km every day with no easy public transport, what would you do?

I'm not here to hate on Ather. I'm genuinely looking for advice from experienced owners before making an expensive decision.

I'm facing a strange issue with my Ather Rizta S 3.7 and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar.

My scooter has around 4,200 km on the odometer, and this problem started immediately after the latest OTA software update.

The issue:

I usually ride in SmartEco mode at around 45–55 km/h.

After riding for approximately 25 km continuously, the scooter suddenly refuses to go above 30 km/h.

The throttle still responds, and the power meter goes all the way up, but the scooter simply won't accelerate beyond 30 km/h.

There are no warning messages or error icons on the dashboard.

Changing between SmartEco, Smart, and Zip mode doesn't help.

If I stop the scooter, switch it OFF, and then restart it, it immediately starts working normally again.

However, after another 1–25 km (depending on the ride), the same issue happens again.

What I've tried:

Contacted Ather customer support.

Took the scooter to the service center.

They connected it to their diagnostic laptop and rode it for around 100 km.

No fault codes or errors were detected.

They reflashed the software, but the problem came back during my own rides.

The service center is now talking about replacing the motor, but they are not sure if the motor is actually the cause.

Some observations:

Initially, I thought it only happened in SmartEco mode.

Later, it also happened in Smart mode.

One ride with a pillion (around 100 kg) completed without the issue, but the problem returned on later rides.

Since this started immediately after the OTA update, I'm not convinced it's a hardware failure.

This is becoming a serious safety concern, especially on highways where the scooter suddenly gets limited to 30 km/h while riding with fast-moving traffic.

Has anyone experienced this exact issue with the Rizta or any other Ather scooter?

If yes:

What was the root cause?

Was it a software bug, controller issue, speed sensor, or motor?

How was it fixed?