Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
E1, E2 and E3 might not be new electric-only classes but just the regular Enduro classes
Enduro 1 (E1) – Up to 250cc 2 stroke and 4 stroke (+ electric up to 48 hp)
Enduro 2 (E2) – 255+ cc up to 450cc 4 stroke (+ electric up to 60 hp)
Enduro 3 (E3) – 255+ cc 2 stroke and 450+ cc 4 stroke (+ electric up to 80 hp)
E3 is basically the only open class in Aussie championship.Ok, electrics are still limited, but 80 hp at the rear wheel is not much of a restriction
Absolutely!
”Vets” (I’d still ride my 250f around at the back of the pack. More power wouldn’t make me any faster…)
and
”Open”
(impossible to cheat, because anything is allowed. Only requirement is to be able to race for 30min + 2. IE “Motocross”.)
The world needs a few less rules!
Unlike other disciplines, MX isn’t only about the “most power”.
Someone could show up with a V4 500cc 2 stroke motor in a CRF250 frame if they wanted. Doubt it would do them much good - but I’d love to see it! (Unlike flat track where King Kenny’s 4cyl 500cc 2 stroke was promptly banned)
If one “formula” was dominant, it wouldn’t matter. We’d get a gate full of bored out 450 current mx bikes, or electric bikes, or whatever, till someone had success with something else. Maybe “the next big thing”.
Potentially the holeshots would be split between the electric bikes and the big bores, but the 90kg 250/300cc 2 strokes might finish a lot stronger!
Bring it on!
Thomas Do mentioned longer swing arm for Stark, should not be that hard for factory to make some for testing even moto dads for 50-65 KTMs are welding extensions or longer custom swing arms to kids bikes.
Yeah, open class makes sense, especially for vets. No factory backing or anything, just ride what you bring and go!
Though if you make it 30 min that may be too much to ask for the current electric bikes (and some vets
).
The Shop
Free shipping: VITALMX
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Yes. I vote for “open” bikes, but shorter races for vets. Let be fair!
This would potentially open the vets class up to electrics, that couldn’t make the 30 + 2. Fine in my opinion. I’m still racing my 250f, cause I’m old and slow….
And a proper “Open class” for MX.
Club, Nationals and Des Nations.
I should have read the rest of the manual...
So even E3 is not really open but Enduro junior, vet, masters and women are. We'll see if anyone races Vargs in those many Aussie championships. In SX they will be there for sure.
Now the hard part, getting the AMA to let them in the Vet classes.
I have not seen any indication a varg can go 30+2 in the hands of a pro. AMart was nursing the thing all day to get his laps in.
No problem.
Won’t be competitive in the “Open class” then.
Come back with a bigger battery. (Or the power dialled down?) This is Motocross.
If the Open class proves popular for MX, maybe they could try it for SX. Maybe the current electric bikes can last 20 mins + 1
Another great and honest interview with Thomas Do here: https://dailymotocross.fr/thomas-do-je-savais-tres-bien-quon-ne-pourrai…
"I stopped my collaboration with Stark because I wanted to renegotiate the contract.[...] They made me a first proposal which was already much better than this year's.[...] We made them another offer for 2024 which they simply did not accept.[...] Perhaps I could have tried to have a little higher conditions from the start, they could have accepted more easily at the beginning whereas now it is not necessarily true because everyone wants to ride their bike."
"In the whoops I think I was really missing a bit of power because when I was training on the 450 version with 60 hp I was already doing much better."
They didn't really change the bike much, he had one test in Spain, 2 tests in France, they fine-tuned the suspensions, changed the height of the foot pegs, more teeth on the rear sprocket and for the last 2 rounds he got a lighter battery, that's it.
He confirms Stark are working on the software to be able to tune the power curve, I feel that should be a huge step for pros and amateurs alike.
He has one regret, not being able to race the Varg in motocross where he feels it could be even more at ease that in SX (though range might be an issue depending on race length and track obviously).
I think Do really suffered from his "250" deal.
He didn't get to race the "450" version because the deal was already done with Tonus -except it went south real fast.
And honestly, even though he's been faster a few years back, I've never seen Do make this many mistakes. He looked way better and more precise on the 450 YZF in the first races...
Yes he says so himself in these interviews, it hurted him to race for 4th to 6th place but at the same time he knew it was the deal he got himself into, to try to develop this brand new electric bike (literally just as it was released) so it could soon reach the level of ICE bikes.
Yes the Varg gotta be more competitive against 450s (capped at 60 hp) than against 250 (capped at 48 hp) because it's way heavier than 250s so making similar to less power with much more weight is not gonna cut it. That's why he immediately got podiums in AX UK, I have been banging that drum for some time lol. Though I have not read anywhere that the Varg had been green lighted by FFM to race in SX1, without knowing any specifics I just assumed they had authorized this experiment in SX2 as a "low stakes" environment, not to mess up with the big boys/teams.
Not what happened.
" for the last 2 rounds he got a lighter battery"
How did they do that, did they remove battery cells?
Maybe it’s just a lighter housing. If they changed the cells, they would have to switch from 21700 to 18650 to keep the overall voltage the same. That would cut the weight, capacity and max power output by a third. Not a bad concept for a SX version.
If they reduced the number of cells, it would reduce battery voltage and maximum current draw, reducing range, maximum power and the maximum rear wheel torque of 938Nm.
938Nm is equivalent to a 450 in 1st gear at full throttle, there aren't many riders who could use that much torque, even on a SX track, 750Nm the equivalent of a 450f in 2nd gear would be more controllable.
Unfortunately that part is not clear in the interview, here is what he says about it:
"Je leur ai demandé une moto plus légère c'était facile. Ils démontent la batterie, ils enlèvent quelques pilotes, ils remettent, ils calculent l'assiette de la moto pour éviter le déséquilibre et basta."
The bold part does not make sense to me. "Pilotes" could be rider or driver (including driver for software). The only thing that could make sense in this context is that they remove some cells since they don't need the full range for SX, I don't see what else they could remove from inside the battery to gain weight?
Pit Row
"I asked them for a lighter bike, it was easy. They dismantle the battery, they remove a few riders, they put them back, they calculate the trim of the bike to avoid imbalance and that's it."
You couldn't remove anything from the battery pack besides battery cells.
Yeah, that’s just what I said: switch the cell type from 21700 to 18650. Same cell number, same voltage, 2/3 cell weight, 2/3 capacity, 2/3 power.
Reducing the number of cells doesn’t make sense. They‘d have to change the whole system.
I don't know the battery pack configuration, but shouldn't there be some cells connected in parallel versus series?
Stark could remove some parallel cells to reduce weight and capacity without impacting voltage.
The battery pack has 200 battery cells in each side, 400 battery cells total...
The cells are Molicel INR-21700-P45B...
Each battery cell is 4.2V when new and fully charged, battery cell voltage drops as they discharge.
During the initial press demo days, Stark's engineering screen showed the battery pack voltage was 405V...
That would be 100 battery cells in series, so 4 parallel sets of 100 battery cells in series.
They could remove 1 set, still maintain the same voltage, maximum current draw would be reduced, maximum rear wheel torque would be 704Nm instead of 938Nm, maximum power would be 60hp instead of 80hp.
It would save 7kg (15lbs) in weight.
Thank you!
Thanks very much, so if they only use 60 hp they can shed 7 kg if they don't mind losing 25% in range.
That's 60 hp and 111 kg for SX.
They could probably do the same for super enduro and Endurocross (when the time comes).
Thanks for the info. I somehow thought they had 200 cells and splitting in half wouldn’t make sense
Yes, then they can go to 3/4 easy.
Arenacross UK 2024 starts (again) this weekend, Stark will field Justin Bogle, Jack Brunnel and Eddie Jay Wade.
Here is an interesting quote from their new signing Jack Brunnel (3rd in the championship last year):
"The biggest thing is there’s no gear changes; the power just keeps going through the whoops, but I never used a clutch on a 450 anyway. Just using my natural throttle control, through feel and not through sound, I can race as normal and put the power on correctly for the traction available.”
Press release on https://gatedrop.com/stark-varg-gearing-up-for-arenacross-uk-entrance/
I'll be at the Wembley round of AX, really looking forward to seeing how the Starks do against the ice bikes at this event. As long as they don't have a significant (unfair) advantage against the ice bikes im all for them racing together.
Tonight in AX UK, Jack Brunell qualified 6th, with Justin Bogle 7th and Eddie Wade 15th. At that point, the 23 riders field was dominated by favorites Tommy Searle (2023 AX UK champ), Harri Kullas (3 times MX nationals UK champ and 6th at Unadilla for his 3 rounds AMA debut last year) and Conrad Mewse (2023 MX nationals UK champ and 2023 British MX champ).
In the heats Brunell got 5th and 1st, Bogle got 2nd and 5th, Wade got 9th and 7th.
For the main event the Stark riders lined up in 4th, 5th and 15th, respectively, behind top3 Mewse, Kullas and Woodcock (edit: Searle DNF his second heat after colliding with Wade and was ruled out for main event due to hand injury).
Brunell won the main event (also fastest lap) finishing 1.5 s ahead of Kullas followed by Woodcock, Greedy, Bogle and Chatfield completing the top 6. Wade finished 13th. Edit: live timing website seems to have it wrong, I think Mewse finished 10th not 3rd (got technical issue on the starting line).
Here it is, that's the first pro win for the Varg against a field of 450s in a national championship. Sure that's not AMA nor MXGP or 30 min races but that still could be a significant moment in the sport.
I wish it would have been Thomas Do bringing Stark their first laurels but it was not meant to be. Interestingly in the September round Jack Brunell rode his Husky to 4th... behind Do's Stark. He was also a very consistent 3rd in last year AX UK championship, despite the lack of seat time the Varg did not seem to slow him much.
Brunell won and leads the championship but things could have even been better for Stark as Justin Bogle was racing a solid third from 1st to 12th lap, unfortunately he lost 15s on the 13th lap to end up 5th after 16 laps.
Post a reply to: Stark Varg Racing Debut