Welcome to another edition of Ride Review! My name is Tyson Roehrkasse and today I'm showing you Varla's Eagle One V2.0, a high performance electric scooter equipped to handle both off-road riding and city commuting with ease. You can see all of our Varla reviews here. The Eagle One V2.0 is equipped with dual 1,000 watt motors that have a combined peak draw of 3,200 watts, with combined output of 76 newton-meters of torque, making this scooter a hill climbing monster! That power is also useful on city streets where you can safely keep up with traffic, at least up to the top speed of 40 mph (64 km/h), and the high deck makes it easy to see over the tops of cars in all directions. While it does fold down for easier transport and storage, it’s far too heavy to be considered portable or convenient, tipping the scales at 82 lbs (37 kg).
The V2.0 is the second generation of the Eagle One, Varla’s first - and most popular - electric scooter. Released four years after the original, V2.0 brings a number of upgrades and quality of life improvements, and while you can still buy the original it’s definitely worth the extra $200 to get V2.0. Here’s everything that has changed:
The headlight is repositioned high up on the handlebars, providing much better illumination and making it easy for vehicle drivers to see you. It’s also incredibly bright!
There is now a latching mechanism for securing the scooter in the folded position.
The tires are half an inch wider (now 3.5 inches) and have more aggressive tread for better traction in off-road environments.
The display is upgraded, showing more detailed information and supporting NFC lock/unlock functions, making it harder for someone to steal.
The deck is one inch shorter… which I don’t love, but it still feels long enough for my big feet and Varla has an extra-wide 14” deck as an optional upgrade.
Varla markets the Eagle One V2.0 as an off-road scooter, and it does admirably thanks to the powerful motors and dual coil swingarm suspension, but the off-road ride comfort could be improved with larger diameter wheels. These 10 inch ones are simply too small to roll over things easily, which means noticeable amounts of vibration still get through to the handlebars and deck.
Where this scooter really shines is high speed on asphalt; I was shocked by just how good the Eagle One V2.0 feels at 40 mph! Typically scooters with this wheel size feel a bit squirrely at high speed, so why doesn’t this one? The extra wide handlebars certainly help, the steering column is incredibly sturdy with no noticeable frame flex, and there’s also significant steering damping. This adds resistance to the steering column so it’s harder to turn side to side, effectively eliminating the speed wobbles that typically start happening around 30 mph (48 km/h). Most scooters require manually installing an external steering damper to achieve this, so I love that Varla has it covered right out of the box.
I’m also a fan of the included accessories for the Eagle One V2.0. As mentioned above the headlight is awesome, and the taillights are solid as well with bright brake light activation, and there’s also running lights on the side of the deck for extra visibility. There’s a flick bell for alerting other riders of your presence, and Varla even includes three sets of extra deck grip tape - all different styles - so you’ll be set for many miles of riding. Really the only thing that’s missing here are turn signals, hopefully Varla will add them for the next generation!
