We’ve conducted the highly anticipated examination of the Stark Varg Electric Dirt Bike: a comprehensive battery range test. Boasting a massive 6.5kWh battery pack, Stark Future claims the Varg can see a ride time of up to 6 hours of leisurely trail riding. Additionally, it can power through an entire MXGP heat before requiring a recharge, which Stark suggests will take only 1 or 2 hours depending on the outlet and charger.
To ensure a well-rounded evaluation, we pushed the battery of the Stark Varg across various terrains and conditions. Our tests included an enduro trail ride at a normal pace, a leisurely trail ride to assess Stark Varg battery life at slow speeds, and a more rigorous test at Thunder Valley, a professional national motocross track, and to contrast this motocross environment, we also did a ride on a flat, hard pack motocross track.
Many of you already know the format here at ECR. We initiated each test with a fully charged battery at 100% capacity. Throughout each test, we monitored the battery levels of the Stark Varg, riding the bike until it reached its limit of 10% charge remaining.
It’s worth pointing out that the Stark Varg does seem to show its battery fatigue at the 20-15% mark. This is not a huge deal on the trail but it does warrant slower speeds and the potential of avoiding jumps on a motocross track. We test down to 10% so that the rider has enough range to limp their dirt bike back to the truck or their starting position.
Stark Varg Enduro Trail Battery Life Test
On this first mixed mountain trail ride, we rode the Varg at Tucker’s ideal ride mode of 40 horsepower with 50% engine braking. Tucker weighs approximately 165 pounds with gear and he’s riding at his normal off road pace, which many of our ECR viewers are familiar with. Throughout this ride, Tucker climbed just over 6,000 feet and also descended just over 6,000 feet. Tucker’s trails have fast flow sections, slower hard enduro sections, and what he would refer to as mixed mountain single track.
After running the rest of the battery down to 10%, Tucker had gone 33.8 miles for a total ride time of 2 hours and 11 minutes. This is honestly where we expected the battery range to be. This range on the Stark Varg is approximately 10% better than what Tucker was getting on the previous king of full-size electric dirt bikes, the Alta Redshift.
How far can the Stark Varg go in ideal conditions?
The next battery test was to attempt the 6 hour ride claim that everyone is talking about with the Varg. For this test, we set the bike to 25 horsepower and kept the engine braking at 50%. Tucker rode at a slow trail ride pace, barely going over 1/4 throttle throughout the ride.
This pace proved to yield a range of 49.5 miles and 3 hours and 24 minutes of ride time. We do think some riders can get better numbers than this if they are really taking it easy. After doing this test, we don’t necessarily think it’s impossible to get 6 hours of ride time, but you would need to be in the absolute ideal conditions, and you better be prepared to be going painfully slow.
Pro Motocross Battery Range Test on the Stark Varg
We ran some casual range tests when testing the bike at the motocross track. In this session, we’re at Thunder Valley MX with test rider Derek Anderson at the helm. Derek ran the AMA Pro Motocross series for years and has racked up enough pro points to prove that he is one fast dude on a dirt bike. Derek is weighing in at roughly 210 pounds with gear and Thunder Valley has some solid elevation change and softer dirt. He rode the bike primarily in 50 HP with a couple stints in 40HP. Both with 50% engine braking.
Including some quick stops and a few cruises on the water truck lane, which I should point out is common for a day at the track, Derek went 18.2 miles for a total of 56 minutes of ride time before the battery started to show it’s fatigue.
Standard Motocross Battery Life Test
Moving over to another MX scenario, industry essential Rob Imondi rode the Varg at IMI Motorsports Complex. Rob is a former pro turned USMCA coach that has a ton of skill on 2 wheels. Rob rode the Varg primarily in 40HP with a few sections at 50HP, both modes with 50% engine braking, and he weighs roughly 180 pounds. Although the track was prepped today, IMI is a bit more of a hard packed track and has very little elevation change.
Rob was able to squeeze 17.9 miles for a total of 1 hour and 4 minutes ride time before the battery had seen enough.
In both of these MX scenarios, it’s plausible that a vet rider may see slightly better range than Derek and Rob would put down, however, both of these guys are super efficient on the bike. So the energy they used up by being more aggressive may also be counteracted by their efficient timing and superior roll speed. On the flip side of that, this was a track day test and not a full moto test. If either of these riders were running race pace from start to finish, the average speed would increase and the ride time would decrease significantly.
How long does it take to charge the Stark Varg?
When it comes to charging the Stark Varg, each household may be supplying different power, but we’re using a 30 amp, 240 volt outlet. At charging speed 8 of 10, it took roughly 2 hours and 40 minutes to charge from 10% to 100%.
In an effort to see the fastest charge speeds we could achieve, we stepped the charging speed up to 10 of 10, and it took roughly the same amount of time to go from 10% to 100%. We think this was a limitation of the power our outlet was offering, so you may see different charge times than this depending on your setup.
Stark Varg Battery Range Recap
To recap the whole range test on the Stark Varg, we’re getting:
33.8 miles at a normal trail pace
49.5 miles at a slow trail pace
18.2 miles at Thundery Valley
17.9 miles at IMI
