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.
New Stark range video, see Cole Seeley drain the battery in 30 min on hard pack.
As Josh Hill said, it's not ready yet for the Nationals. That being said, amateurs can expect about 45-55 min on hardpack before power drop indicating it's time for a break to recharge.
As a stark owner and fan I must say that is very much best case scenario. His first time riding the bike and power set to 48hp. Let him get really comfortable with the bike and set power to 60hp or 65hp where I imagine he'd like it and that battery is toast in 20mins. Put him somewhere slightly softer and it's done in 15 mins.
Agreed, that's why they'll be doing a range vid on a soft track as well.
To be honest it's cool to see the difference between pro and amateur but I find more interesting to look at the amateur range, these vids are not aimed at AMA pro riders 😁
To get a range reference for pros it's best to look at actual racing, as in AX UK, SX tour, World vets, SX Tampere or Taddy B and Eddie Karlsson enduro, hard enduro and superenduro races.
This vid series also illustrates well how much range can vary between riders, type of riding (hard enduro, enduro, MX) and type of terrain.
At first even the pros seemed to have difficulty getting the hang of jumps on their videos and they sort of cut and pasted sections of the track. These riders are all saying how easy and smooth it is to ride now…did they just have to see others dial in the right horsepower to not have it want to loop out and/or is that still a concern hitting the “gas” on a higher power setting kind of like the new rc bikes? If the bike is under less load like not in sand I imagine that would use less power similar to an engine would strain less to overheat. Does the electric get hot like other batteries or has anyone heard of a melt? Probably not with this technology and all the years of battery power r+d. The battery just dying when it’s dead seemed pretty innocent and is it something you can just swap out a different battery between motos or do you have to give the internal one time to recharge? Hangtown is listed as hardpacked and they say it gets rough so varying ruts or breaking bumps could play in. A track with more elevation change would be interesting to compare if they did that yet with the battery pulling power up hills or the load decelerating down if applicable.
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
Free shipping: VITALMX
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
SX Tampere 2024 1st night
Harri Kullas is still unstoppable, winning superpole, head to heads, both heats and the main.
Josh Hill and Jorge Zaragoza were definitely in the mix on their Vargs, let's see if they can get closer today.
Heat 1: 1. Kullas, 2. Hill, 3. Clason, 4. Macler, 5. Zaragoza, 6. Lane
Heat 2: 1. Kullas, 2. Hill, 3. Clason, 4. Zaragoza, 5. Haavisto, 6. Ray
Main: 1. Kullas, 2. Haavisto, 3. Zaragoza, 4. Clason, 5. Lane, 6. Macler.
Kullas hit neutral in the first turn, got down to 7th then passed everyone for the win, Hill got tangled in the incident and could not get better than 8th.
Zaragoza got 3rd, like last year, plus fastest lap in the main, still not enough to beat Kullas.
Great showing for Chesterfield McMillan out at Chicken Licks Raceway. He was looking strong, almost taking a podium in the 47+ Novice class.
Nobody else chose a Varg on the day, but Chesterfield was giving us all a glimpse of "the future" of our sport.
Truly exciting.
He rides like a bat out of hell-sinki.
SX Tampere 2024 2nd night
Might as well copy and paste from yesterday or from last year, once again Harri Kullas won everything, and once again Zaragoza puts the Varg on the podium (and got fastest lap in the main).
Heat 1: 1. Kullas, 2. Haavisto, 3. Hill, 4. Macler, 5. Lane, 6. Cros (7. Zaragoza)
Heat 2: 1. Kullas, 2. Haavisto, 3. Zaragoza, 4. Hill, 5. Lane, 6. Clason
Main: 1. Kullas, 2. Lane, 3. Zaragoza, 4. Hill, 5. Cros, 6. Chatfield
Hill lead, was passed by Zaragoza then went from 2nd to 12th losing 12 s on lap3, Kullas lead from lap 5 and that was it. Great comeback up to 4th from Hill.
Nice Fin-nish for Kullas.
Some footage from Tampere SX
Now that Vargs are racing AMA Arenacross, here's an interesting vid by MattB, so far the whoops are Vargs weak spot but they can make up for it in other parts of the track.
And here is an answer by Josh Hill about why electrics are slower in the whoops:
I think it’s because there isn’t as much rotating mass as a gas engine. No transmission, piston, rod, flywheel, just a small electric motor powering the whole bike off of a large battery. It makes the bike extremely agile to turn and flick in the air. But when you want it to tractor smoothly across whoops, it takes a different technique that I havent yet mastered.
Lots of Vargs racing these past few days,
Karlsson podiumed in hard enduro at Red Bull Los Andes
Irsuti got top5 at Paris SX, unfortunately it was just in the SX tour races, Vargs were still not allowed for the international races
And with the great news of electrics racing in AMA Arenacross, here is Josh Hill vid from round 1
Enduro21 guy riding hard enduro with Taddy and Eddie, they seem to be real nice guys, also small glimpse of the factory at the beginning.
Is that a hockey arena?
No idea so had to look it up, maybe locals can confirm, hockey is at the Nokia Arena, SX is at the Tampere Exhibition and Sports Centre (used for football and track and field in the winter months).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampere_Exhibition_and_Sports_Centre
https://www.tampere.fi/en/sports-and-exercise/sports-and-exercise-facil…
Thanks, not used to seeing a dome like that in the states except for hockey which didn’t make any sense since it would be a much smaller s arena I wouldn’t expect for racing. I am sure there are some track and soccer complexes that I just don’t go to. Not very common of a place for racing either. Usually football, baseball, or bull kind of complex already dirt. I am surprised the football and baseball stadiums let that much dirt in when they try to keep in groomed and neat for regular games (maybe not baseball in thd off season but that’s still 500 truckloads they say.
In Europe it's literally indoors, not stadiums, if you look at venues for AX UK or Paris SX and SX tour, these are mostly concert/show venues where sometimes sport happens, not necessarily with home teams for any sport.
Paris La Défense Arena, home to Paris SX, is the largest indoor arena in Europe with a capacity of 40 000, Arenacross UK goes to the largest UK venues like Manchester AO area with capacity over 20 000. Granted Tampere SX is a more modest affair.
I am not sure of the capacity as a trivia question but i liked the idea of seeing The Red Bull X-Fighters use the bull fighting stadiums instead of the fights. They are restoring the colosseum and it would be cool to see an event there or at Wembley. Paris Bercy doesn’t look that big with the floor and lights.
Pit Row
Nice trivia, you sent me down a rabbit hole 😁
Paris SX switched from Bercy to La Défense Arena in 2017. Arenas max capacity are typically quoted in concert venue configuration so when you run indoor sports you remove quite a lot of seats to make some room for the track.
La Défense Arena capacity is 40 000 for concerts, 30 000 for rugby and Paris SX, they used it at 15 000 when they installed an Olympic pool for Paris 2024 games.
So 30 000 seats and sold out every year.
Here are some pictures of the arena in different configurations to get a better idea of the venue size
Seating map
Paris SX 24
Football exhibition game
Paris Olympics 24
Cool stuff, were people afraid to get splashed with water? That’s not many for an intimate swim. The track didn’t look big enough for Jett cause it looked like he ran into the back of someone…guess that can happen anywhere. More room in Australia if he buys some real estate while he’s there.
Here's a bite size vid from Eddie Karlsson race at Red Bull Los Andes
30 min highlights are here
This is brutal, 5 laps, 3 h race to the podium, 2 battery swaps including one at the last minute. Standard Varg with race tires, mousse and Ohlins suspensions.
Great to hear the crowd cheering but so many close calls, speed/skill differential is so large he might as well add an air raid siren for all the lappers (including going the wrong way) and helpers in the way, crazy stuff.
Raw footage from Seely ride at Hangtown (48 hp, 40% regen)
20% battery left at 27 min, 10% at 29 min then he appears to notice slight dip in power, still making the jumps for another min or two until 5% battery left then limp mode to empty.
Great interview with Yannis Irsuti, one of Stark official riders in SX tour.
He talks about adapting his riding style, rear brake options, development about suspensions, whoops, ongoing work about "noise", and his 2025 racing program (possible wildcards in France Elite MX championship).
https://dailymotocross.fr/yannis-irsuti-je-me-dois-detre-precis-sur-de-…
KRANKiTs' recent Stark Varg YouTube video :
https://youtu.be/GFpf0yVX_y4
This enduro stuff is new to me but they have some really good fans. I didn’t think anyone could hit the terrain that fast like it’s all flat wven with a helmet cam of constant obstacles and the dude was frustrated with me seeing only 1 tip-over when the people he was lapping were crashing all over the place. Equally impressive was finding a way around like Beagle said with a lot more of close calls with things being so tight not seemingly enough room for 1 rider. The only reason why there was such a difference in speed was because Eddie was flying beyond comprehension. I don’t think I have ever seen that much action or obstacles and the only time I could see Eddie slowing down was if he wanted to charge back up a hill or get some dust vision to see what was coming up ahead or at him the wrong way! The balance to hit all the stuff was insane and a testament to how the stark can accelerate without hesitation or concern for gear choice as a future thing worth investing in. The drive power momentum matched the guts on this helmet cam.
Haven’t watch the race but there’s something about e bikes in a competitive environment that just doesn’t do it for me. Cyber trucks are fast and cool but there’s something about the smell and sound of a slow diesel truck idling in the driveway that just perks em up
AMA Arenacross is on, interestingly after first practice Hicks tops both AX Pro and X Pro timesheets.
How soon before they storm SX or MX?
Hicks has been around for a while, nice to see him step it up.
Hicks on his Yam got 2nd for the night in AX (2nd, 3rd, 3rd) behind Friese who got the perfect score (including winning cash for clash mixing ICE and electrics).
Hicks on his Stark won the X class (2nd and 1st) ahead of Bogle (1st and 2nd). Josh Hill is not there.
Post a reply to: Stark Varg Racing Debut