The Varla Eagle One electric scooter is one of the most popular electric scooters and is owned by many intermediate riders. Manufactured in the same design as the Zero 10X, it is undoubtedly among the scooters that have gained lots of views on YouTube.
One thing that is often talked about is that the Eagle One isn’t a cheap ride. Retailing at above $1500, you won’t be asking for much when you expect it to be top-notch quality.
However, just like most scooters in its classes don’t come without a flaw. After taking my ample time to ride my cousin’s Eagle One and getting in touch with many owners, I have gathered enough Varla Eagle One problems and complaints.
In fact, some of these are universal problems across each Varla Eagle One and as such, you may need to read this to the entirety, especially if you are looking forward to buying one.
Table Of Contents
6 Common Varla Eagle One Problems and Complaints
1. Short fenders
Not to be petty or anything, but every little detail means a lot to me. The current version of the Varla Eagle One has short fenders and is of somewhat poor quality.
If you hope to someday ride your Eagle One under light rain or even in muddy conditions, then it’s guaranteed that water will hit your back.
It would be best if Varla used a long and a better quality fender than they currently have. To solve the fender problem, you can buy the right extender and you will save your back, shoes, or even your helmet-covered face from muddy splashes.
2. Speed wobble
Since the Varla Eagle One electric scooter can hit a top speed of 40mph in the 3rd gear, it can sometimes have a speed wobble.
One of the ways in which you can solve the speed wobble on the Varla Eagle One scooter is by installing a high-quality damper to stabilize your ride.
In our earlier blog post, we talked about how you can solve the speed wobble problem on an electric scooter.
Another complaint I read on Social is that the front tire wobbles sometimes. To fix that, if you are handy enough, I recommend that you remove the tire, deflate it, and then fix it back properly.
The other solution that I also recommend is that you set the tire PSI to 50. Under most circumstances, setting the tire PSI to that correct amount will prevent tire wobbling.
3. Low-Quality Stock Tires
There is no doubt that flats suck while riding and the types of tires used in a scooter determine whether you will reach your next destination or not.
For some reason, the tires used in the Varla Eagle One are prone to flats, especially when you ride your scooter off-road or on tough terrains.
If you were looking forward to buying an electric scooter with all-terrain tires, then the all-new Varla Eagle One Pro may be a choice worth exploring.
If you currently have the base Eagle One and are suffering from the pertinent holed tires, then you have no choice but to replace them. If you would rather never have a flat in your scooting life, you can as well replace the stock tires with a solid tire option.
It’s even better if you love riding an electric scooter that comes with stock solid tires. The all-new EVOLV Terra is your perfect option.
4. Problematic front motor
Since the Varla Eagle One scooter is a dual motor ride, I have seen at least 4 complaints about the front motor spinning for a couple of seconds or vibrating violently and then switching off.
Sometimes as you twist your scooter’s handlebars around, it may be possible to cut the wire harness behind the front wheel leading to the front motor. One of the primary things Varla needs to address is that they should sheath all the cables just as is seen with EVOLV scooters.
If your scooter’s front motor turns on and off, you can begin by looking at whether there are any cut cables leading to the front motor. If there are any cut or improperly connected cables leading to and outside the motor, then be sure to reconnect them and test if the motor runs once more.
If all the mentioned cables seem to be in stellar shape, the problem is undoubtedly with power interruption leading to the motor.
To solve this, ensure that you set the scooter to the dual-motor mode and get a multimeter, and then set it at the ends of the motor’s cable. Press the throttle and should you see the multimeter showing 0 Voltage or instances of instability, then the motor is bad. You will just have to get in touch with the seller and have them replace it, especially if the scooter is still under warranty.
5. Failure to turn on
There are different reasons why an electric scooter can fail to turn on and this is more of a concern than a Varla Eagle One scooter problem.
Someone had posted that after connecting the two chargers to power, they turned on in Green as expected but sadly after connecting the chargers to the scooter, they didn’t change the color to Red.
The problem is that the poster didn’t know whether the battery was fully charged or it was a case with a dead BMS.
One of the most common reasons why an electric scooter may fail to turn on is a spoilt battery. It happens with some scooter owners that they may not properly know how to store an electric scooter during the winter season. You have to charge the battery once in a month to between 50 and 75% so that it stays in optimal shape. The person who posted this could possibly have accidentally damaged his battery due to improper care.
Having an electric scooter not turn on happens a lot with even more expensive electric scooters and it may not be a manufacturing defect. It happened with my Kaabo Wolf King GT Pro and the solution was simple.
I realized I had been turning on the power while charging to check the status of the charge, but the BMS wasn’t designed to handle that.
My other scooters just shut off and won’t turn on while charging, so that could be a general limitation.
One that they could probably work around is the electronics, but if they never do, it’s really no big deal. Another issue is the BMS shutting off the unit while riding below a certain voltage. This is to protect the electronics, and not really a defect!
6. The rotor bends easily
There have been complaints by some Varla Eagle One owners claiming that they received their scooter with a bent rotor.
Yes, it may happen that during delivery, the rotor may bend but then this poses the question of packaging than the quality of the rotor.
What concerns us is the complaint about the rotor bending while the scooter hit a small pothole. We would honestly expect that Varla uses high-quality rotors for the price they charge for this scooter.
After all, there are other similarly priced scooters such as the YUME Y11 with better specs such as a 50-mile top range and a top speed of 50mph, without complaints of weak components.
The Customer Support isn’t the best
While this isn’t particularly a problem or complaint with the Varla Eagle One electric scooter, we have received tons of complaints about the company in general.
One of the common concerns and especially on Reddit is that even with a warranty, getting part replacements takes some bit of time. Others say that even after contacting the company more than 5 times to look for a way forward about problems with their Eagle One, they don’t circle back.
In Summary: Varla Eagle One Problems and Complaints
The Varla Eagle One electric scooter definitely has great specs but just like all the scooters, it has its fair share of shortcomings.
It’s our hope that Varla sorts out the problems and complaints raised on different social media problems because, for the price of the Eagle One, customer service desperately needs to be top-notch.