[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by TusharK

There is one more news about Ola S1 Pro suspension break. Here are the links

https://www.cartoq.com/another-oia-s...ension-breaks/
https://www.timesnownews.com/auto/bi...ticle-94816161

Did this happen because of extra weight on footboard? This is one of the possibilities I can see. It is too early to comment on the product quality because I have personally spoken to many Ola S1 Pro owners here and they seem happy about the product quality. No such incident in my city till date.

The Ola scooter was basically designed for European roads. Indian roads are mostly rough and pothole ridden. That is one contributing factor. The 2nd factor is, even though it was designed it Europe, it's manufactured in India. Cost cutting (cheaper/inferior materials) and lack of quality control are well known here.

[deep_bang]

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

The Ola scooter was basically designed for European roads. Indian roads are mostly rough and pothole ridden. That is one contributing factor. The 2nd factor is, even though it was designed it Europe, it's manufactured in India. Cost cutting (cheaper/inferior materials) and lack of quality control are well known here.

The post you have quoted is an old one and the article is from 2022. Post that, there has been a front fork update even eligible for older scooters which had the 'presumably' defective fork. So I think we can close that chapter now. Unless we have a case of broken fork with the upgraded fork.

[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

I have booked an Ather 450X and a Nexon EV. Eagerly waiting for both. Despite all the negatives, I still feel the OLA is better overall. Still confused whether to go ahead with the Ather or book the OLA.

I went ahead with the Nexon a year and a half ago and few days ago also picked up a used Ather.

Originally Posted by msarunms1987

Finally, Ola has launched the center stand and side step official accessories

I am really baffled why majority of the people in India consider these as the most important accessories.

Just read the complete thread. Looks like Ola has sorted out most of the issues. Now you can just walk in to an Ola Experience Center (the one in Goa is more of a godown than an experience centre though) and pick up an Ola.
Service of both brands still has a long way to go. Youtube is full of bad service experiences for Ather too.

The primary difference between the 2 brands is;
Ather is a bunch of Techies trying to do Business whereas Ola is a bunch of Businessmen trying to do Tech.

[GTE]

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

I am really baffled why majority of the people in India consider these as the most important accessories.

I agree I used the side stand only when I had the Access. Unfortunately Ather has given too steep an inclination for the side stand. They should have given a more upright position with a provision to lock the brakes when parked on an incline.

[msarunms1987]

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

I am really baffled why majority of the people in India consider these as the most important accessories.

Originally Posted by GTE

I agree I used the side stand only when I had the Access. Unfortunately Ather has given too steep an inclination for the side stand. They should have given a more upright position with a provision to lock the brakes when parked on an incline.

Why not?!

We have a small portico and walking around while 3 ICE 2-Wheelers were parked was never a problem. This was because, we had center stands on all 3 of them.
Fast forward, with 2 OLA S1 Pro scooters taking place of 2 ICE scooters, there is almost no space to even land a foot in the portico. And this is because of the amount of space that is gobbled up by the OLAs that are taking about 1.5x the space they would take if they were on their center stand.

Extending the available parking space in our portico is not a viable option at this time, and so, at least for me, the center stand accessory is a deal breaker.

Fast forward again - We have this most important accessory on both the scooters and the walking space has been reclaimed.

However - there are 2 problems:
1. With a pillion on board, the slightest of the humps or potholes will make your side stand scrape.
2. This center stand accessory is not mated with the side-stand sensor and even if you park the scooter on the center stand, it requires you to deploy the side stand before you are able to lock the scooter.
I have read that some people have gone ahead and inactivated the sensor (with a so called, "software update"), but I have not explored it yet.

[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by msarunms1987

Why not?!

We have a small portico and walking around while 3 ICE 2-Wheelers were parked was never a problem. This was because, we had center stands on all 3 of them.
Fast forward, with 2 OLA S1 Pro scooters taking place of 2 ICE scooters, there is almost no space to even land a foot in the portico. And this is because of the amount of space that is gobbled up by the OLAs that are taking about 1.5x the space they would take if they were on their center stand.

All you need is paddock stands since you problem is only parking at home.

However - there are 2 problems:
1. With a pillion on board, the slightest of the humps or potholes will make your side stand scrape.
2. This center stand accessory is not mated with the side-stand sensor and even if you park the scooter on the center stand, it requires you to deploy the side stand before you are able to lock the scooter.
I have read that some people have gone ahead and inactivated the sensor (with a so called, "software update"), but I have not explored it yet.

So basically to solve 1 problem you have introduced 2 new problems.

And what about the footrest? Many will argue that it's for saree clad women sitting sideways. Sitting sideways whether wearing a saree or jeans is plain dangerous. People need to change their mindset rather than trying to change a good design.

[msarunms1987]

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

All you need is paddock stands since you problem is only parking at home.

Have tried it on my Himalayan before. A built-in center stand is more convenient and practical for us for various reasons.

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

So basically to solve 1 problem you have introduced 2 new problems.

Well, everybody's priorities are different. And the problem I solved holds more priority/weightage for me than the other 2 problems that "got introduced".

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

And what about the footrest? Many will argue that it's for saree clad women sitting sideways. Sitting sideways whether wearing a saree or jeans is plain dangerous. People need to change their mindset rather than trying to change a good design.

Easier said than done. OEMs wouldn't be manufacturing these accessories if there was no demand in the market. It takes a lot of time, change in mindsets (like you mentioned, sir) and acceptance to get things to the "ideal scene". The ideal scenario is always very different than the reality.

Anyway, to preserve the purpose of this thread, I will refrain from commenting any further on this topic.

[vamsi.kona]

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

And what about the footrest? Many will argue that it's for saree clad women sitting sideways. Sitting sideways whether wearing a saree or jeans is plain dangerous. People need to change their mindset rather than trying to change a good design.

Many women, especially down south, wear sarees only and have been commuting for decades without much hassle. Removing the footrest specifically designed for such people would take away their ability to commute. In this specific case, changing mindset won't help unless all these women either change their attire, which is something that has been part of the culture over many centuries, or can afford different vehicle like an auto or 4 wheeler.

[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by vamsi.kona

Many women, especially down south, wear sarees only and have been commuting for decades without much hassle. Removing the footrest specifically designed for such people would take away their ability to commute. In this specific case, changing mindset won't help unless all these women either change their attire, which is something that has been part of the culture over many centuries, or can afford different vehicle like an auto or 4 wheeler.

Well it's up to you. I was talking purely from the safety point of view. I know of 2 persons (my teacher and a girl from my locality) who both lost their lives because they were sitting sideways.

[vamsi.kona]

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

Well it's up to you. I was talking purely from the safety point of view. I know of 2 persons (my teacher and a girl from my locality) who both lost their lives because they were sitting sideways.

As a male, personally I am not affected directly and as such I am neither for or against that feature. Was just presenting the side of a large populace which might be affected. I cannot downplay or dismiss your personal experience, but to know if sitting sideways is really a big safety issue we would probably require data on accidents.

[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by vamsi.kona

As a male, personally I am not affected directly and as such I am neither for or against that feature. Was just presenting the side of a large populace which might be affected. I cannot downplay or dismiss your personal experience, but to know if sitting sideways is really a big safety issue we would probably require data on accidents.

Like I said, it's upto each person what you want to prioritise; Safety or Culture. Japanese women also have traditional attire. They don't use it when travelling on a bike. Also most developed countries don't allow sitting sideways on a bike. IMO the only way a saree clad woman can safely travel on a 2 wheeler is if she is the rider.
Again this is my personal opinion. I'm not trying to hurt the cultural sentiments of anyone.

[Gansan]

There are still a large number of women, especially older/rural women, who still wear only sarees. A lot of them can't ride a scooter and can't afford a four wheeler. Even if there is a four wheeler in the house, it can't be used for every occassion. They require mobility too. So our MV act does not prohibit sideway seating on pillion but makes saree guards compulsory. We can't sit sideways and ride pillion for even a hundred meters. But women who have been riding that way for years find only that position comfortable. The best we can do is to ensure they wear a helmet, ride carefully and hope for the best.

More importantly, there is a considerable section of buyers, especially rural buyers or even urban buyers of a certain age group, and they will not buy a scooter if it does not have a side step for pillion. Including me. I will not be permitted to buy it in the first place, it will be ruled out in the test ride stage! The company will lose out on sales.

Side steps/saree guard are not important for a bike like the R 15, for which the target buyers are different. But for a scooter which is touted as a family vehicle, it is important. If you notice carefully, commuter motorbikes too will have a side step, integrated into the saree guard.

[tech_rider]

After multiple followups received central stand for ola. It took 8 months for them to install on the scooter since scooter was delivered. After riding scooter for a day, i feel stand is not worth installing. Design is faulty, it hits road for every speed breakers or broken roads. It was very irritating to hear loud noise(thuds) on roads I usually ride smoothly.

I think issue is by design, as ola service center says they know about the issue and they don't have any solution, adviced me to tackle speed breakers at extremely slow speed. If anyone plans to purchase this, I would recommend to rethink if this is really needed. Only advantage of this stand is to easily park the scooter in tight space. If you have very good roads with proper speed breaker designs, you might be able to ride without issues.

[Buzzaper]

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 centerstand 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 footpeg 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 powdercoat 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 aswell.
• 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 twsting foward? 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 poped 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 centerstand 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. Somwhere 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 aswell. 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 noticable.
• 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 noticable 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 noticable 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!

[anjan_c2007]

Irate customers in the state of M.P. are seen demonstrating in front of an Ola showroom demanding that it be closed down, as it has failed to ameliorate their Ola scooters incl. the S1 Pro Gen/ S1 Air's issues. The showroom owners say that it has been authorised to ONLY SELL BUT NOT SERVICE OLA SCOOTERS.

https://youtu.be/Dix9RgjSflk?feature=shared

It appears that the Ola honchos are more airborne with their new launch, the Ola S1 Air in tow, when they need to be at the ground level to resolve service issues rather than concentrate only on sales.

The news link below makes more revelations:-

We have seen several videos online where customers have complained about the after-sales and service from Ola. Here we have a video from Madhya Pradesh where customers are actually protesting in front of an Ola showroom and want to shut the service center down due to poor service.

The video has been shared by Electric Story on their YouTube channel. In this video, the vlogger mentions that a bunch of customers have been facing issues with their scooters, and the service center staff is not responding to it. The vlogger also shows several issues faced by other Ola scooter customers. In the video, he shares audio clips from customers who were stranded in the middle of the road after the scooter stopped working. He also shows an image where the rear suspension of an Ola electric scooter was broken and had damaged the underseat storage.

Coming to the main issue here, an Ola electric dealership in Madhya Pradesh has been offering festive season offers to customers who were buying new scooters. The existing customers were actually furious as they have not been getting any response regarding the service of the scooters that they bought from the dealership. Many of them have registered a complaint online a few months ago and are still awaiting a response. A customer can be heard saying that the customer care center cuts their call whenever they approach them for a solution or an issue.

The customers even spoke to the dealership staff, and they told them that the manufacturer has appointed them here only to sell the scooters. The issues and servicing in the scooter are not their concern. They also asked the customers to report issues online. Furious customers have now gathered outside the dealership and are protesting against Ola and the dealership for their irresponsible behavior. The customers actually want to shut down the dealership.

The newslink:-

https://www.cartoq.com/ola-customers...ut-down-video/