Stark Varg Racing Debut

It’s good to see e-bikes having more involvement and structure. The smaller e-bikes like Surron and ERide are getting bigger, more powerful while other Starkish brands are appearing almost weekly. 

The Varg is the only direct competitor to the 450 atm, but others like the Arctic Leopard, Radian, Surron Ultra Bee, Bonnell, Altis, are very close. 

The largest, most popular competitors are lighter weight mid size bikes. 

Stark really got inside your head, didn't they? Give it up.

Or maybe Google "Luddite".

"Getting inside your head" is a bogus theory that's really getting inside Vitard's heads. Very trendy.

Oh, btw, I'm still amazed at how someone posting commercial propaganda for a brand, every week, for years, can be considered OK. 

Maybe the goal is getting inside people's heads?

😏

Here’s the closest Varg clones that should be released by the end of ‘26:

• Weight: ~240–260 lbs (Expected)
• Horsepower: 87 hp
• Wheelbase: 56.5 to 57.6 inches
• Height: ~36–37 inches (Seat height)
• Availability: Pre-order Open
• Expected Delivery Date: Scheduled for early to mid-2026

• Weight: Under 220 lbs (<100 kg)
• Horsepower: 42 hp
• Wheelbase: 55.1 inches (1400 mm)
• Height: 35.4 inches (900 mm) Seat Height
• Availability: Pre-order Open (Active allocations)
• Expected Delivery Date: Deliveries roll out through mid-2026

• Weight: ~245–255 lbs (Estimated)
• Horsepower: 85 hp
• Wheelbase: ~58 inches
• Height: ~37 inches (Seat height)
• Availability: Not For Sale / Prototype Stage (Early queues closed)
• Expected Delivery Date: Targeted for late 2026

• Weight: 249 lbs (Sprint pack) to 275 lbs (Endurance pack)
• Horsepower: 70 hp
• Wheelbase: ~58.5 inches
• Height: ~37.5 inches (Seat height)
• Availability: Pre-order Open (Deposits active)
• Expected Delivery Date: Initial customer batches rolling out in 2026

• Weight: 209 lbs (95 kg) — This makes it notably lighter than the Stark Varg and right in line with the Dust Moto Hightail.
• Horsepower: 67 hp (50 kW max power)
• Wheelbase: 55.7 inches (1415 mm)
• Height: 37 inches (940 mm) Seat Height
• Availability: Pre-Order Open (Limited Production). The factory is building an initial limited run of 100 individually numbered units.
• Expected Delivery Date: Deliveries are scheduled to roll out through late 2026.
  
  (All of these are between $12 - $15k, except for the Dust at $10K)

Tsssss, stop polluting Beagle's PR work, his sole contribution: the endless Stark only thread...

😄

Dust and Bonnell might get released this year, they've made impressive prototypes, Bonnell has even done some MX and Enduro races (although being bought by Livewire might be the kiss of death for Dust).

Jarv-E (Erzbergrodeo finisher) might make a few dozen bikes this year but it doesn't look like they're ready for mass production.

Flux and Radian have super promising prototypes but Flux has been very quiet for 6 months (possibly pushed back in 2027?) while Radian aims for Q4 2027 deliveries.

Really curious about the big OEMs, they've been able to dissect the Varg for a while, they've seen Stark selling 1000 bikes/month, Yamaha will soon release its first electric dirt bike with Electric Motion and then of course Honda, whenever they'll get their package ready, been 9 years since their first prototype unveiling, is anyone's guess.

The OEMs were way behind the curve when the Varg came out. 

There is a thought that customers wanting e-dirt bikes, want a full size 450 equivalent, which is where the Stark Varg buyers fit. But significant buyers for e-dirt bikes are non-moto persons, who like the idea of a powerful emtb/ dirt bike mix. Full size e-dirt bikes are mostly ice e-conversions, while the majority of the e-dirt bikes sold are midsize or smaller - Surron LBX, Talaria, ERide Pro, and smaller Valtinsu EM5 Pro, Yozma, Tuttio, etc. 

So in saying that, it’ll be interesting to see where the competition market goes. Infront, Feld, and DC are locked in to the ice OEMs and will only make a move if the OEMs (mainly Honda) approves. In the meantime, the market is wide open for midsize e-dirt bike competition.

Yes there is a lot of choice out there for midsize, hey boss, if you haven't seen it already, enjoy this vid from Pastranaland

I don't know who Beagle is, not been following him, but to support the Stark Varg I would say that Stark Future operations is on a whole different level than most smaller e-startups. Sh*t, Stark is shipping thousands and are supporting racing teams while others are 'building prototypes'.

That doesn't say the future in 5-6years might look different, but right now I would claim Stark Future is the only one building a 'serious' e-mx bike.

The 'mid-size' bikes are interesting, first of all, they seem to be safer, most yourtubers ride them with a bicycle helmet and sneakers.

Midsize e bikes are great to put more bums on seats.

Right now Stark are the only one with a production bike more or less at the level of gas bikes and have been the only electric bike regularly competing in MX, SX and Enduro in national and global series, at amateur and pro level, for the past 3 years (although Jarv-E is also in Hard Enduro World Championship). 

I mean Stark is supporting teams and riders in AX UK, France SX tour and Elite MX, WSX, SuperEnduro, EnduroGP, Hard Enduro World Championship, US Hard Enduro... And then lots of amateurs are racing their bike in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and America.

The only major championship they're missing really is AMA SX, I would love to see Hicks allowed to race there on his Stark but obviously the OEMs aren't so keen.

Right now electric dirt bike racing is Stark racing but hopefully this will soon change. Whenever one of the big OEM will be ready (or Bonnell, Flux or other startups), things would get more interesting, the more the merrier.

So the Bonnell 805RX. A lot of guys liked the 805 small wheel. None for the ERide Pro SR. Interesting. Definitely showed the limits of the suspension.

Too bad they didn't get the Dust Hightail prototype, these lighter bikes (805 is given at 211 lbs / 96 kg, Dust at 235 lbs / 107 kg) still pack decent power (56 hp for the 805 and 42 hp for Dust) and could be really great if they can be priced significantly lower than $12k Varg.

I see MXA finally decided to test a Varg (1.2 Gen).  

I just got my Varg last week and after 2 days on moto tracks with stock settings, I upgraded to the "pro" settings and the traction control is like cheating. I was liking 48 hp on the moto track with no TC/normal settings, I could ride it aggressively without worrying about getting whiskey throttle with too much power til I get used to it. Then I went trail/play riding out in some open areas and tried 65 hp with 100% tc, and it was even more manageable than the 48 hp setting with no tc. Hold it wide open and it just pulls really smooth. Almost took the fun out of it! I'll have to play around with lower percentages.

I did notice bumping the low rpm power up with a 32hp map was super fun for the woods, gave me enough pop to bring the front wheel over logs/streams. I'm having so much damn fun riding this thing!

I was surprised at how well the Bonnell MTB did. That thing looks like it would be a ton of fun.  Surprised they were able to do all of the jumps with it. I started thinking about selling my regular EMTB and picking up one of those 

 The Varg was at a slight disadvantage being set up stiff for Pastrana  and bigger jumps.   It will be more interesting to see what bikes start to show up in future videos on the channel. I'm not sure if TP bought the Varg or how he got his. But he's had one for awhile. Be interesting to see if they end up buying some more of the ones they really liked to add them to the fleet he has.  

It was cool to see bikes compared to each other that You would never normally see compared to each other. And the  benefits of electric being a less expensive platform to develop on the lower end bikes is really showing with the crazy amount of bikes available .  Its cool to see so many entry level options that have come out.  It would be cool to see a major brand even take an existing platform , one of the better built mid sized bikes. And rebrand it maybe put a little of their own touch onto it. But then support it with parts in dealers. Something Surron sized and then more of a pitbike size . Kinda like Honda and Grainger have done. I think it could help them bring in new customers and just the support of parts and dealer networks alone would make some of those bikes a better value if they could stay the same price as they are. 

It’d be good to see Stark offer a slightly smaller, lighter bike alongside the Varg.

I’ll be surprised if the Dust Hightail ever makes it to production. It’s still pricey for a “midsize” bike, above $10K. Same with the Jarv-E, above $13K. 

This is Cooper Abbott's ride for when he's not allowed to race his Stark. And it's gorgeous.

Starks are racing in France, UK, Australia, Canada, Hungary, Croatia, Czechia, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Slovenia, Madagascar, Argentina, Colombia, Chile...

Add to the mix WSX, SuperEnduro, EnduroGP, Hard Enduro World Championship. And to be fair, various AMA enduro series.

Yet, somehow, the world did not end. 

Stark is now the largest selling Enduro bike in Germany, France and Italy. 

Like it or not, the world is changing.

No one’s angry

Coming with KYB kit suspension, heck ya!