So a while ago, somewhere in March 2022, a company called Stark came out of nowhere with the announcement of an electric Dirt Bike, the Stark VARG, available for pre order right away. They had a fancy website and the specs were amazing but still realistic, so I jumped on it and pre ordered my own.

Above is a picture of the current Stark VARG listing on their website. Not much has changed since then. You still have the option to go for a somewhat sensible 60 hp standard version (like I did) or a crazy 80 hp alpha version. The price went up from 12.000 to 12.900 EUR… Which they properly announced back in May 2022 also promising that price wouldn’t change for existing orders (like mine). And they’ve added an extra color option.

They haven’t changed the specs since, they still promise to deliver a 110 kg dirt bike with 60 hp power output. That’s very similar (also from the looks) to a 450 class dirt bike in weight but then a bit more powerful. Well that’s to be seen cause it’s electric and you can’t just compare those numbers 1-1.

They also still stick to the Android phone that comes with the bike. It is linked to your bike and you can mount it on the bars and use it as a dashboard or to change your motor mapping the way you want it. This feature definitely stood up to me as a developer. That and the fact that it just looks like any other dirt bike.

Anyway I placed my order and soon got a confirmation that delivery was expected for December 3rd 2022. That is the date this article is scheduled for…. And that’s about it, cause since then I had plenty of updates. There is a bi monthly newsletter that contains mostly PR stuff about how good (ex) prof riders think this bike is and how production is happening and what not.

For a long time it looked like production was on schedule and delivery would happen on time. The date for new orders was moved more and more forward, but existing orders seemed to be fine. Just like for the price update, only new orders were impacted.

Up till October when we received a new bi monthly newsletter. Only this time it was completely devoted to how production was happening but a delay couldn’t be avoided, not even for the first deliveries. It included a video message from the (or one of?) CEO explaining that anyone impacted would be contacted personally to inform them about their specific order.

And indeed, shortly after I did get a phone call. If I now log on to the website and check my order I can see that the delivery date has moved to August 2023. That’s more than 6 months later, more like 8, almost 9 months. Anyway the good news remains, the amount hasn’t changed, the order is still confirmed and delivery is still expected.

In the first screenshot you can also see that new orders are now expected to be delivered in May 2024. The big question remains when any of these bikes make it to the client and if so, how jaw dropping the specs will still be by that time. Because May 2024 is like 2 years later than my pre order date.