Given the plethora of Varg threads and the tendency of each to devolve into a complete mess rather rapidly, I figured I would start my own to share my experience of testing the bike in Spain last week. I did a quick write-up and Youtube video about the experience and really tried to dig into the details about the bike regarding handling and battery life, as well as address some of the rumors regarding production. This was a really awesome experience and I'm excited to see these bikes start showing up at local tracks, after riding it firsthand I think we're going to look back at this time years from now as a major inflection point in this sport.
Full write-up: https://3dpmoto.com/blogs/news/testing-the-stark-varg-electric-dirtbike-in-barcelona-spain
Video Review:
Nice review!
Thanks for posting your review! Its cool to see & hear the thoughts of an obviously quick/capable rider providing insight into interesting new technology in my favorite-est sport, all while riding what looked like a really fun track at a competitive/capable pace!
I just bought a brand new 2023 YZ450f on Friday (5-12-23!) to compliment my YZ250 2-stroke and I look forward to enjoying my ICE bikes hopefully until I decide it is time to hang up the boots!
BUT
the wife & I own 20 acres and my brother has 45 acres nearby too! While I have the room and ability to build a track on my place, I am 100% certain the noise from my ICE bikes would create issues that I could easily avoid with the Varg!
Needless to say, I am definitely intrigued and anxious to see/hear how things continue to evolve with this bike & battery technology! I could easily imagine fun riding days at either my or my brothers place on an E-bike that the neighbors wouldn’t even know when I was out riding! Having my own personal MX track right behind the house would be a dream come true! 😎 👍❗️
Nice write up Josh, feels like an actual customer review instead of a paid PR piece. lol
I'm curious, did anyone in the group grab one at 100% charge and ride it to 0% or however low you can go? Or did everyone just estimate run time based on length of session and % of battery used?
Excellent review,as it's from an engineer it helps as you have an understanding of things like production and fit and finish, some riders would not really look for that.
You look a decent speed as well.
How does the weight feel now it has the extra battery size? Before everyone said how light it felt , maybe some of that's gone now?
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I'm not sure exactly what everyone else did, but I never personally ran the bike down all the way to below 10% (I believe that's where performance starts to fall off). Once I did that initial 20min stint and saw I had plenty of power left that put all of my concerns about battery life to rest, so I didn't really focus on that too much throughout the rest of the day. Our tracks around here usually split practice up into 3 groups; Expert, Novice, and minis/women, so I don't think I will have any issues running my full session then charging the bike for 40min in between.
I never rode the bike before they added the additional P group to the battery, so I can't say if it drastically changed handling or not. I can say that the only time I noticed the weight of the bike was when I was under braking heading into a tight corner, I really had to use a lot of front brake and with the forks being a little bit too soft I wasn't as confident in the front tire biting as I could have been. I think with a slightly stiffer fork it would allow me to have a better feel under braking, and in turn the weight would likely be less noticeable. I'm really nitpicking with this complaint, but it was essentially the only drawback I noticed so I felt like it was important to point out.
The test bikes also all had Pirrelli tires mounted if I remember right which I have no previous experience with, so that could have played a factor as well.
This is one of the big upsides of an EMX bike to me. Even if it was equal to an ICE bike in power and rideability . The lack of sound , or drastically reduced sound would make it so nobody knew you were riding. And if nobody knows your doing anything, its harder to complain about it. I've got a loop of trails that are about a mile right now on my own property. And while it is zoned industrial, I'm on the edge of residential and I'm sure I would get a lot of complaints if I was out doing motos on a 450. But with a Stark Varg, and leaving a canopy of trees to cover the trails , that will be more of a track anyway, nobody would know it was there unless they went out there.
I've got some 15-20' wide sections that are very difficult to see from the air. I thought it would be easy to see from my drone. But no. I worded around the biggest trees leaving them, and it hides well from above, with still having it wide enough. Keeping as many trees also helps cut sound and keep dust down by helping the track stay moist and slowing any wind down that could carry dust.
Hope that you end up building a couple epic tracks!
You just trying to make the rest of us jealous?
Hahaha! My brother and I built a little over 2 mile MTB trail that winds all through his mostly wooded 45 acres and we made it a point to keep it away from the road or his closest neighbor so that we could ride without upsetting anyone or them even knowing we were there!
I am 100% certain listening to the video JM has posted, that I could also DEFINITELY ride a Varg through our MTB trail and no one would even know I was there on the E moto-bike either!
While I very much enjoy the sound of a crisp 2-stroke and I might prefer that auditory input over the whine of an overgrown RC car, it is a trade-off I would happily make to be able to ride on my or my brothers property with NO concern for any moto-sounds that I would make disturbing the neighbors!
Thats awesome! I wish I had more elevation change on my land. Its almost totally flat . slight changes here and there. A friend of mine has 11 acres that back up to 100's of acres of a state park. With some decent hills that would make a fun MTB course. I'm thinking of adding some singletrack and maybe something like a BMX track for MTB's . When I first started out I was making a rally style course for my SXS. Then I blew the engine up and its been sitting stripped down to the frame from the dash back. So I've neglected my trails. But its almost back together so I'll be working on them more soon.
I bet you could ride the Varg on your trails without any issues.
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