Stark Varg EX review: Our first look at the 80 HP street-legal dirt bike

Recently, the up-and-coming electric motorcycle manufacturer Stark Future invited us to the mountains of Spain to get hands-on with the Stark Varg EX – a fully electric street-legal enduro motorcycle selling in the U.S for $12,990 for the 60 HP configuration and $13,990 for the insane 80 HP configuration. After 2 days on trails, my biggest surprise was just how approachable and easy to ride the EX turned out to be for such a high-performance machine. It’s still far from being optimal as a commuter bike, but then again, that’s not quite what the EX is for.

In 2023, Stark Future began shipping its off-road MX dirt bikes, which quickly established the company as a serious competitor to ICE motocross brands. Now, with a lot of trails around the world becoming more regulated, the natural progression for the company came in the form of their street-legal EX. Before we get into it, let’s get some of the specs out of the way. 

Stark Varg EX specs:

• Power: 60/80 HP
• Battery capacity: 7.2kWh
• Range: 1.3-7 Hours riding
• Weight: 264 lbs
• Suspension: KYB front & rear with 300mm travel
• Charge time: 1-2 hours with 240V outlet

From MX to EX

The Street-Legal EX comes with a slightly bigger 7.2 kWh battery compared to the 6.5 kWh battery on the MX, but overall, this is still much more of a hardcore enduro motorcycle than something you’d use for long commutes and occasional trails. For those looking to convert one of these into a supermoto for around-town riding, the battery is more than sufficient. However, for those looking to commute to off-road trails that require traveling via highway, the range is not quite there yet, and unfortunately, there is no portable charger that you could easily take with you. It’s simply not where this bike shines.

Performance: 

Despite the backlash from the Motocross federation and regulators who make it very difficult for electric dirtbikes to compete in races, Stark Future has put a lot of effort into building a serious race team. 

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Outside the track, the bikes themselves are very much performance oriented, coming stock with a max of 80 HP, insane torque, and KYB suspension front and rear. Another tell sign is the stiff seat, which lets you know right away that this is much more of an enduro bike than something made for commuting. In addition, Stark Future wanted to prioritize saving weight and staying competitive on the race track over longer range and comfort. 

As a result, the bike handles more like a full-size mountain bike that somehow has just enough weight to track well on rocky terrain. Overall the bike handles incredibly well, has great weight distribution and size and is no surprise that aside from a few tweaks to the power delivery the EX that comes stock to customers is essentially the same bike that is being brought to the race track to compete on world stages, something which is not common in the world of ICE motorsports.

For those coming from gas bikes, a tip that you might want to consider is using the hand brake as a clutch. For the EU model, the rear brake is a hand brake located on the left side of the handlebars exactly where the clutch lever is on a gas bike, so for extra stability in tight single track, try giving that hand brake a try.

The Tech

In the center of the handlebars comes a smartphone, which is where you can set custom power modes, adjust regenerative braking, and even fine-tune power delivery. Out of the 80 HP, you can set the power to as low as 10 HP, which, combined with its 264-pound weight, makes it easy to hand off this bike to a complete beginner without having to worry about them hurting themselves too badly. 

Once you have a few power modes saved, you can toggle between them easily with the buttons on the handlebars, although it does take a minute to get used to because there are a few other modes you can cycle through with those two buttons.

Crawl/reverse mode

Stark Future added a few modes to make enduro a bit easier, which at the beginning of the ride I didn’t pay much attention to until I was stuck and needed to use them. If you’re familiar with walk mode on electric mountain bikes, crawl mode is essentially the same, except that with the strong torque of the bike, it’s super useful for walking the bike up steep dirt hill climbs. It keeps the wheels from spinning out, yet still has enough torque to make progress going up. There’s also a reverse mode for backing up, and altogether it made learning enduro a lot more fun.

Maps and apps

Aside from power modes, the smartphone on the bike also works for navigation, as well as any app you would have on your normal smartphone. You could also add a SIM and receive calls and texts straight to the phone. 

Electrek’s take:

One of the most appealing aspects about this bike is just how much performance you get for such an approachable bike. I could easily set this bike to a lower power setting and pass it to a friend or family member who is a complete beginner for them to have a lot of fun, and at the same time, you could pass this bike to a professional supercross rider for their next pro race.

Considering people are spending similar amounts of money on modding out Surrons, that still likely won’t compare to this bike that was designed from the start with racing in mind. The $12,990 price tag isn’t too bad for a performance enduro bike that you can ride with plates, but for those looking for a cool commuter bike, this might be a little overkill unless you’re serious about electric supermotos and want that higher-level performance. 

As for Stark Future, they have a lot of momentum going and a strong team, but they also move as a start-up up which means while they are ambitious and move quickly, certain departments, such as support, may not be as large as some of the bigger companies out there. That being said, they do have intentions to grow out their support team and build a distribution center in the U.S. to cut down shipping times. 

As for their products, there’s no official word on any specific models coming soon, but there does seem to be interest in developing more street-oriented models. There are also ongoing developments to reduce weight, including the possibility of 3D printing titanium frames and parts. Personally as someone who spends most of the time off trails it would be amazing to see the type of performance offered on the EX with the convinence of being able ot use a portable charging adapter to have the luxary of riding to a forest, stoping for lunch and having the chance to charge right before getting into the trails.