I’ve already shared on my YT channel that I put a pre order on this recently announced Stark VARG electric dirt bike. Sure this is a startup like we’ve seen so many the last years in the EV world. But still I have a few reasons to give them some cash while, for example, Damon never will.
Promising but realistic specs
To begin with they announced a bike with specs that look very promising but at the same time still are feasable. Not like Damon Motorcycles (no I won’t even link them) where I think they claimed 200 hp for a 200 kg electric bike that will go 200 Miles. Honestly I might be quoting the wrong specs here but they haven’t released anything so far and they make way too much noise.
This STARK dirt bike is different. It only has a 6 kWh battery and a range comparable to a 450 dirt bike (not much) and 60 or 80 hp depending on what config you get. They also have specs for details that matter in the dirt bike world. Like what chain tensioner is used and what suspension and protection is in place.
The most promising feature is probably that 110 kg weight. I really hope they’ll stick to that (and will deliver). No there is no DC fast charger on board, nor is there an AC charger on the bike itself. You charge with a 3.3 kW charger that gets this battery balanced again in 1 to 2 hours. Having that separate and adding only a 6 kWh battery are choices that make the bike less desirable unless weight is important to you.
No Homologation to worry about
Another great choice of them, in my opinion, is to bring out a bike without homologation first. So this is literally a toy and they don’t have to worry about so many things when you want to produce a motorcycle that is road legal.
Ok for buyers that might be an issue. There aren’t many electric dirt bikes around, KTM has the freeride platform but that clearly isn’t made yet to perform better than their existing ICE options. Zero has the FX, now FXE, model but that is down in power and up in both weight and price.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a road legal version in the future or a kit for homologation once they are passed the startup phase. If that will ever happen. Even Zero still acts like a startup after being around for over 10 years now.
Limited risk with a 100 EUR pledge
Yeah I know, most start ups use this method today where you can pre orde with a low amount. Tesla did this with nearly every new model they announced so far. Damon probably has something similar in place. Anyway if that helps them getting started I’m glad I can contribute.
It’s similar in way to those kickstarter campaigns where many people pledge an amount providing cash to the company that can then start working on prototypes and hopefully once also put something on the market.
That last step isn’t always the case. So I’ll report back next year if anything happened or not. They did give me an expected delivery date of December 2022.