Sci-fi supermoto: Riding the Stark VARG SM

This type of sentiment is fairly common. I’m not the first one to be amazed and a little bit baffled by the VARG. Most people who ride one, whether in MX trim or road-legal EX form, seem to have their eyebrows raised most of the way through their review.

It starts with a quick glance at the specs. It’s an 80-horsepower, 276-pound electric motorcycle with all of the exotic materials you would expect to find on a $14,000 bespoke dirt bike. And more, actually, because (as our contributor Greg explained) there’s also a military spec, removable, GPS-equipped Android device as a dash, providing an extremely data-rich owner experience and somewhat groundbreaking security capabilities.

On paper it’s an impressive piece of equipment, and it’s exciting in the dirt bike marketplace because certain tiers of off-road motorcycling are pretty homogeneous in design. The VARG doesn’t just have spicy specs; a lot of its hardware is a pleasure to behold. There’s stuff from predictably high-end suppliers like Brembo and Galfer, but also fully custom, CNC’d triple clamps and wheel hubs, plus odd-looking carbon-fiber bits and gold inlay. The VARG is different, and that’s fun. 

As for the supermoto version, it uses the age-old recipe that Dustin discussed in our first look of adding wheels, tires, and brakes designed for the street and keeping most of the dirt bike DNA for the sake of fun, or economics, or propriety. Or maybe it’s all three. As you might imagine, the SM shares the most parts with the road-ready EX, but there are changes beyond the obvious.

For example, the SM’s fork is more different than it looks — the same 48 mm KYB tubes offer about 0.4 inches less travel, and are also set farther from each other with less offset in the triple clamp. Ultimately, the SM and EX share a rake measurement of 26.1 inches but, due to the tires and suspension, the SM’s ground clearance measurement (12.3 inches) and seat height (36.8 inches) are each 2.2 inches lower than the EX.

Stark confirmed that the SM is claimed to be 10 pounds heavier than the EX, though that seems like a big delta considering the only contributing factors are the 17-inch wheels and tires, a burlier front brake setup, and slightly wider triple clamps. Regardless of the weight disparity or where it comes from, the VARG SM carries all of the same hype as the off-road models.

Absurdification

And so I climbed aboard, assuming I would be blown away just like everyone else who has ever tried a VARG, SM or otherwise. To anyone who is used to conventional machines, the bike’s quirks are evident immediately. The kickstand is spring-loaded and retracts when the bike is pulled upright. The dash doesn’t boot up immediately when the power button is pressed; I let go when I heard a faint, electronic click and hoped that I had held it down for the right amount of time. The seat is approximately as wide as a pack of playing cards and about as soft. None of these are firsts in motorcycling, but the VARG certainly announced itself as different as soon as I touched it.

I make a habit of trying all ride modes on motorcycles that I test so I started in power Level 1, rated at 10 horsepower, and expected to feel bored. Instead, I was pretty entertained. Up to the 20-hp Level 2, then, and I was pleasantly surprised yet again. After about a mile of wandering through my suburban neighborhood I joined a larger street. Time for Level 3. “Wow, 40 whole horsepower," I smirked inside my helmet, "let’s see if I can handle it.”

After wheelying away from the first stop light I came to the conclusion that the power numbers shown on the dash don’t actually mean very much. The “40 hp” setting felt nothing like 40 actual horsepower in any other motorcycle. Just to be sure, I switched the VARG SM to the 60-horsepower Level 4 mode and braced myself for a surprise. Sure enough, I disagreed with the number. 

A 20-ounce bottle of Coca-Cola contains 65 grams of sugar, but imagine if your body took in most of it in the first mouthful. You’ll like how it tastes, but you’ll also wonder if it’s altogether safe. Soon after I tried the 60-*wink*-horsepower Level 4, I found a fun game to play leaving each stoplight or stop sign: snap the throttle open just enough to instantly lift the front wheel, then carry it on a wave of torque until the approximate speed limit of the road was reached, then listen for the chirp of the not-yet-rotating front tire touching pavement. Delightful.

To keep my promise of trying all throttle maps, I tried the 80-horsepower Level 5 mode, but it didn’t actually make any difference since I wasn’t even opening the throttle all the way in Level 4. By the time I had cycled through all of the standard power maps and cackled like a Disney villain inside my helmet for about 15 minutes, I was clear of suburbia and entering twisty roads leading into the foothills. Classic supermoto territory.

The term “razor sharp” gets thrown around a lot and in the case of the Stark VARG SM it’s applicable to a few things. After less than 10 miles I hated the saddle almost as much as I hate people taking FaceTime calls in restaurants, then again I was admittedly distracted by the VARG’s light and precise handling. The chassis is stiff and uncompromising, which means on truly slow and tight ribbons of asphalt the VARG carries proper supermoto poise.

As much engine-tuning adjustability as modern ICE motorbikes can have, in some ways the VARG puts them to shame. Both the regenerative braking function and traction control are changeable on a simple sliding bar that ranges from zero to 100%. If 74% regen is too much, feel free to try 73% or 63%. Is that too granular, realistically? Probably, yes, but it also leverages one of the main differentiators of the electric powertrain. Beyond simply getting a kick out of it, I found it pretty useful to tweak regen based on my riding conditions, and it seems to affect battery life noticeably.

If granular is your thing, feel free to pay 13 euros a month ($14.50) for the ability to adjust your own power curves in the dash, or limit the bike to follow racing regulations, and also take advantage of 4G service straight to the bike which enables tracking, turn-by-turn nav, and extended connectivity. I would not do that with my own VARG SM, because I think the basic functionality is great and software subscriptions offend me.

Electronics aside, Stark went to the moderate trouble of fitting spicy brake components and the result is predictable. While the front brake is oddly low on initial bite, there’s loads of linear power and the bike is light enough that it makes the system feel even better. Honestly though, the whole experience is rose-colored because of the ridiculous motor. That almost limitless enthusiasm to accelerate was addictive and fresh all at once, every time I twisted the grip.

Despite the quick handling and satisfying brakes, there’s a notable list of things that annoyed me about the VARG SM. It cannot be overstated how uncomfortable the seat is, but the only reason I bring it up again is to point out that there are three seat options: Standard, Grip, and Super Grip. My tester had the latter, designed for kart-track mayhem and ultimate feel. Stark offered me a Standard saddle and, while I didn’t have a chance to try it, I feel fine recommending it because there’s simply no way it’s worse than the one on the bike I rode.

Moving on, the blinker switch has no tactile feel and, even though I never thought I’d need to have two complaints about turn signals, the actual lights themselves are amazingly ugly. Others have taken to blaming the US DOT, but it takes two to tango. Unrelated to blinkers, the steering sweep is far too limited for what’s essentially a street-legal dirt bike. It seems that the triple-clamp setup for the SM is the culprit and there’s no way around it.

Next up, while there could be a whole subsection of complaints about charging — like how sometimes the bike started charging when I plugged it in and sometimes it didn’t — my wife specifically requested that I report to you her feelings on the noise that the charger makes. I won’t publish the actual words she used, but I agree that if you can hear the howl of your EV charging with two rooms and a hallway between the garage and your ears it’s probably too loud.

Oh, and did you know that the VARG slips into neutral after 10 seconds of no throttle input? It’s adjustable, kind of, but I still found myself vexed. I have never stalled on a motorbike so many times, while sitting at the front of a line of cars, as on the one with no engine, no clutch, and no transmission. I felt the same rage as when my truck illuminates the whole dash to tell me that I have successfully fastened my seat belt. Flippin’ maddening.

The goal of that “feature” seems clear: With enough torque to pluck a human foot off the end of a leg, it’s bad if the rider somehow forgets that the throttle is live. But, this is the same machine that allows the throttle to be active when the kickstand is down. Only for a few seconds but, still, that seems like just as likely a problem as someone forgetting that 80 atomic horsepower is available while they’re sitting on the bike.

My list of gripes extend beyond just the riding or charging experience, too. At one point I left for a week-long work trip and the VARG SM ended up sitting in my garage for 10 days without being ridden. I noted that when I left the battery was at 81% and when I returned it had dropped to 58%. It doesn’t take long to recover that kind of charge, and I suppose I could have left it plugged in when I was gone, but I’ll admit I felt a little betrayed. Trusty ol’ gasoline, volatile as it is, won’t bleed off a quarter tank while you’re on a business trip.

I think it’s fair to point out that while those are the prominent things that annoyed me, because the VARG SM is so unique, your list is more likely to differ from mine. Bucking convention tends to polarize the reaction to a product, for the good and the bad. Also, fixes for some of my problems might exist in a dimension I’ve never visited — I can see some younger-than-I-am reader thinking, “you just go into the dash, select ‘hardware’ and ‘lighting’ and then request the EU turn signals, they’ll ship for free. Dumb millennial!” 

Where the sun don’t shine

Back to the topic of range and battery percentages, the short story is that I found I could go about 50 miles on one charge. The long story is that I diligently collected data, on one ride in particular, tracking battery usage along with average speed, elevation gain/loss, and mileage, so that I could map out different scenarios of calculated range based on types of riding. 

And in the end I gave up on all of that data. Because I realized it doesn’t actually matter how far the bike can go, downhill with a tailwind versus up a melting glacier with Travis Pastrana riding. It can’t go very far, that’s the real takeaway. It wasn’t designed to go very far. Even among electric motorcycles the VARG SM is inconvenient, never mind next to gas-powered ones.

It almost pains me to pull at that thread. Comparing the VARG SM to gas machinery is internet troll food that I don’t think is necessary to serve. But, it’s also inescapable. There will be endless tired arguments about being able to buy a used [brand] [model] supermoto from [insert year] for only [insert price]. People will whine about the range, too, because by gosh if they can’t ride from home to such-and-such a place and back well then it’s just not blah, blah, blah.

This is where I can actually offer some good consumer advice: If you find yourself trying to rationalize the Stark VARG SM, it’s already too late, you’re out. You can safely look elsewhere for your next purchase. And if you feel compelled to try to convince others that it’s a bad idea, kindly shut up. Yes, it’s pricey and, no, it doesn’t make sense. Isn’t that kind of motorcycling in a nutshell? I just can’t bring myself to dislike the Stark VARG SM because of that alone. 

I truly disliked the seat, the blinker switch, and how it shut itself off just before traffic lights turned green. But man oh man, did I laugh a lot, too. In order to appreciate the Stark VARG SM you have to accept not only the machine along with its flaws, as we always do, but also the scenario in which it thrives. If you do, there’s a pretty wild experience waiting for you.