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Installed 2 preordered accessories on my Ola S1 Pro: How good are they?

My service center experience has been excellent as well. My mechanic never fails to give a prompt response to me.

BHPian Buzzaper recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Some Updates/Insights on my ownership experience:

I have been procrastinating this update for a good few months, and I'd like to share my experience so far. Let me start from the oldest to newest update:

Updates on things from OLA's side:

A chocolate box and 6 months later, got a mail that my center stand and buddy step had arrived at Guindy EC in early July. I bought those along with the scooter in January. I was out of town that week so called my mechanic from Guindy EC after returning. They said both were "out of stock". I was confused. I got a mail saying my allocated accessories had arrived. How can they go out of stock when they were supposed to be mine? The answer was "first come first serve fitting sir". This defeats the purpose of allocation. Complained to OLA customer care, was useless. I then followed up with my EC every week asking if stocks had arrived. Finally after 3 more weeks of waiting, I got my center stand and buddy step mounted.

The original foot peg will be removed and the buddy step will be attached over there using not so good bolts which will start to have surface rust soon.

Before Installing the center stand, I inspected it to see how dependable it is:

It felt heavy and sturdy and had a convincing powder coat finish over it.

While my accessories were being mounted, I had a good look at almost everything in the dealer:

  • This was the day when S1 Air was about to launch. There were marketing materials about S1 air and it had instructions on what to point out to customers to make them feel the advantages of EVs.
  • There were 2 wooden crates which contained brand new S1 Pro batteries. Looks like many are facing battery failures. Came across a couple in WhatsApp groups as well.
  • The front yard of the dealer (along with the sidewalk) was parked with several S1s. I had mentioned in a previous post that they were all there for front fork replacement. The service bay racks were filled with new front fork boxes from top to bottom. Good to see OLA taking this matter seriously.
  • Met an owner who was taking his scooter after brakepad service. To my shock, he said that this was his 3rd set of brakepads within 10K kms! I asked him about his regen usage, and he replied "What's that? The throttle twsiting forward? Is it good to use it?" This shows that many are not aware of all operational procedures required for EVs.

Accessories were fixed, I return home and parked the scooter on its center stand. Next morning when I lower the scooter from its stand, I hear a pop. The side lower black panel had popped off which was being held by plastic clips. Tried pushing them back in but every time I lower the scooter from its center stand, it would hit the panel and pop it off. Went back to the EC and the mechanic replaced the clip with a similar looking one. It seemed to be held in place. But I faced the issue yet again. The next time I visited, the clip was replaced with a much robust feeling and sturdy clip which solved the problem.

How is the center stand working for me?

It works as it should work. No issues. It has not scraped on a speed bump so far. I go over them with some caution. Even with a pillion, it has not scraped.

Charger Refund status: The app showed that my refund will be done before September 30th. Somewhere in the 1st week of September I received the full amount.

Fast forward to present, I have completed 2600kms. No issues till date. My service center experience has been excellent as well. My mechanic never fails to give a prompt response to me when ever I call him or visit the EC. Facing a trivial brake noise issue at the moment but unable to find time to fix it. It has not affected the braking performance. Managed to click some milestone numbers on the way.

S1Pro Gen-2 Impressions:

Visited Anna Nagar EC just to testdrive Gen2 on MoveOS4 demo day. Here are my impressions on it:

  • Initial pickup is improved drastically. I did not expect such a difference comapred to Gen1. Looks like they reworked the final drive along with the new powerful 15HP motor
  • Normal mode almost feels like sport mode. Hyper mode is surreal even after experiencing it on my scooter for months. The front wheel almost floats on sudden accelaration. This is definitely not for someone who's going to ride a scooter for the first time. This level of performance is too much for grocery runs.
  • The flat footboard is a welcome change. Sad that Gen1 users have to live with the hump.
  • The space between handle bar and seat has been reduced. You now sit much closer to the handle bar and its noticeable.
  • The dual shock front suspension feels very composed, and transmits almost no vibration to the handle bar.
  • The horn is a let down. It sounds way weaker than Gen1. "Silent" cost cutting I guess.
  • The most noticeable downgrade, will be staring right in front of you. The instrument display's resolution and quality have been downgraded drastically. It looks like the display that my decade old micromax phone had. Another cost cutting I guess.
  • The slight reduction in weight was noticeable the very moment I lifted the scooter from it's side stand.

Regarding MoveOS4, the scooter I drove did not have it. Responses from users have been positive on all platforms so far. I did not want to try out the Beta as I'm skeptical about OLA's reliability in things they do. It's now time to wash my machines.

Ending this post with Ayudha Puja wishings!

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