2025 Stark VARG SM First Ride: The Wildest Electric Supermoto Yet

Cycle World

Take a first ride on the 2025 Stark Future Varg SM, the electric supermoto built from the Varg EX platform and designed as Stark’s first real step toward a full street lineup. We test its 80 hp Alpha power, updated chassis, new braking setup, and real-world range on the streets and mountain roads around Barcelona. If you want to know how the Varg SM performs in the real world and how it fits into Stark’s growing on-road future, this ride tells the full story.  Check out the story at https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-reviews/stark-future-varg-sm-first-ride/  Become a Channel Partner: https://octanemedia.co/home/become-an-advertiser/  Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6CLI74xvMBFLDOC1tQaCOQ Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/ Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld

Transcript

00:00the thing is so ridiculously fast just the front end lifts everywhere just

00:05wheelies off of every little rise total blast so we just stepped on to the

00:11Stark Varg SM the new supermoto bike and getting used to the overall feel for

00:18this thing really strong brakes we've kind of got the power turned down right

00:22now just kind of getting a feel for it around town we're gonna head up into the

00:26mountains and ride this thing and see what it's all about but so far

00:31everything about it feels really conventional really comfortable seating

00:35position the riding position is very natural very enduro and this bike makes

00:42perfect sense for the city right it's like such a cool around town bike

00:47everybody wants a supermoto bike to rip around on their commute and having an EV

00:53version of that is super cool so well we're gonna ride this bike over the

00:58next two days and really tell you what we think of its position in the market and

01:04the handling and up in the mountains and do a little bit of everything but we're

01:10just getting out of town now so let's go and ride this thing let's go rip this

01:13thing around all right so we're just riding along the coast here kind of caught

01:18up behind traffic a couple of my first impressions about the Stark Varg SM is how

01:26light and motocross like the handling is and so much of that side to side action

01:32is super improved by not having that reciprocating mass of a crankshaft so the

01:38thing just flicks back and forth so light like the side to side transitions are so

01:43much lighter than you might anticipate regenerative braking is something that

01:49you can customize in every single mode so you can set the power and regen braking

01:54for every mode obviously you kind of want their regen set higher so that you can get

01:59some of that power back for the battery but at the same time it's got like a you

02:06know it feels like the strongest compression braking from an engine so you

02:10kind of got to find your sweet spot there find a setting where it feels more

02:15natural to whatever your tastes are and that's a little bit unique about it but

02:20it's all customizable so you can go in and pick those power modes and then set up

02:24those regenerative braking and we're still playing with it we've set up the power

02:29like in 30 40 50 60 80 increments and kind of cycling through those once you get up

02:36into the upper power ranges the thing hauls butt with the front wheel lifts off the ground super super

02:43fun all right now we're out on uh some twisty roads and i think i have this thing maybe set right now

02:50at like the the 50 horsepower level and holy criminy is it fun the thing is so ridiculously fast just the front

03:02end lifts everywhere just wheelies off of every little rise total blast

03:12started playing with the regenerative braking a little bit i set up a custom mode um turned the

03:18brake the regenerative braking down to about 50 percent on the mode i really like which is like 60 horsepower

03:26super fun i kind of been switching back and forth and if we're just kind of stuck in traffic or

03:34something i just shut it down to a much lower mode to save battery but then when we're in a fun part you

03:40turn it up get it where you want it and it's super fun but the regenerative braking makes such a big

03:47difference on how the bike reacts that i really turned that down a bit so it felt more natural

03:54and uh if you have it way up like i was saying before it's just it regenerates so much

04:05all right so now we've got our first little bit of range anxiety a little bit we're at uh 27

04:14charge and we're up in the hills got a ride back down into barcelona

04:19and uh so we'll be changing the mapping around quite a bit to make sure that we're

04:26or the power levels quite a bit to make sure that we're not running out of battery but um

04:32we've kind of done a pretty fun long loop today doing a bunch of wheelies screwing around and i don't

04:39know what the mileage um at this second is on the on the uh trip today but i'll figure it out and share that but

04:47so far um for a fun little afternoon out ripping it's been pretty cool and not overly worried about

04:57the range around town no worries around town you don't have to think about it because the thing is

05:03you know you're not going super fast but it's when you get out and really have sustained speed that it

05:10really chews up the battery quickly my power setting one is about 30 horsepower i think or somewhere in

05:18there and that's not that much fun honestly that's not nearly as fun as 60 to 70 or to 80. 80 is crazy

05:26but you can't do that for too long and your battery is going to be completely smoked one thing that i will

05:33say about the uh the master cylinder that they chose on the front is it doesn't have much lever

05:42travel at all so and the brake is really strong so trying to find that sweet spot where you've got

05:53the ability to modulate the brake really nice is a little bit difficult i would like a little bit more

05:58travel on the front brake the rear brake is great it's got really good modulation you can feel where

06:07you're at with it and it's you know much more um normal feeling the front is got just like literally

06:18a half an inch of travel and you're at full power like i was saying earlier handling wise this thing is

06:26really fun side to side it's so snappy you don't have that reciprocating crank making the thing slow down

06:34in mid corner it just you put the bar input in and it just does what you want it to do and it you know

06:41feels like a legit super motorbike in that sense the geometry everything about it really feels like a

06:49totally legit super motorbike after riding this thing most of the day the the hand rear brake starting

06:57to grow on me a little bit i was really struggling with it this morning but now that i've kind of got

07:02the feel for it backing it into corners is pretty fun actually you can do it on the left or on the right

07:09not feel like you're all out of balance

07:17the only way you can tell anything's happening is you can just hear the tire squealing

07:21all right we're rolling out on our second day on the stark varg sm and we're gonna

07:32do a city tour of barcelona which should be pretty cool

07:36and obviously um give us a lot more range um than we did in the mountains yesterday yesterday we did

07:44a little bit of freeway did a little uh of everything some fast mountain roads and

07:51the bike did about 54 miles yesterday um in those conditions so i'm super curious to see what it does

07:57today in a more urban environment so this should be a good test of what your average commuter person

08:05would experience on the sm around town it's definitely worth it to just put it in a lower power mode

08:13and set the region a little bit higher keep your battery power kind of you know from getting eaten up

08:21so that you can uh save it for when you really want to have fun speaking of city stuff one of the things

08:27i forgot to mention yesterday was and i was talking to the engineers about it is kind of like honda's

08:34dct bikes that have a little parking brake because when you park the bike the thing just wants to

08:39roll away otherwise because it's not in gear per se that's kind of a something i think that this sm

08:47needs too because let's say you live in san francisco and you have a varg sm and you park it the thing

08:54just basically goes into a neutral state and you really want to have something to keep the bike

09:01from rolling away so a little park break would be kind of a cool thing for them to add in the future

09:07all right we'll see how our day goes today we got some rain and lightning in the distance which brings

09:12up another thing so basically the vargs basically have different modes but they're not like your

09:21traditional modes on a a bike that we're used to like rain road sport it doesn't have that you just

09:27have five different numbered modes and you can customize all five and basically set your individual

09:33power setting and set your regen braking setting but those are kind of the only options you have you

09:38don't have any traction control or anything like that for the rain so you're really having to

09:45have make sure that you've got that stuff set up on your own so that you have a good setting for

09:52if it's slick out because you don't want to be i can promise you you don't want to be in the 80 horsepower

09:58or 60 horsepower even if it's raining out on a slick road because the torque is freaking mega i mean

10:05it's you don't really have they don't have an algorithm to um be mellower in the bottom or the top or

10:12anything like you would for the for a rain mode on another conventional bike all right we're riding

10:18in the rain now so we're on mont juic the side of the olympics back in the past and i'm riding around

10:25on some slick roads i've got the power all the way down to like 20 horsepower just to be safe and

10:32have the regenerative braking turned up a little bit and then you don't even need to use the brakes

10:37almost at slower speeds so just giving this kind of a go seeing what it's like it's got nice tires

10:43on it so the rain shouldn't be an issue at all but you know like i was saying earlier you don't

10:47really have a specific rain mode so you kind of got to set up your own map for that when you're

10:52riding around town i will definitely say that 20 horsepower is pretty much adequate like it's not

11:00spicy but it's good so you can't really complain and you're saving a ton of battery but

11:06yeah the power delivery is is really nice like 20 horsepower is for around town really good it's

11:14you know some of the other power levels are just so bonkers that you'd just be wasting your time

11:20around town and the thing the front ends light all the time and yes if you're screwing around that's

11:25great but otherwise you know being in these lower power settings is totally cool it's fine so another

11:32thing to mention from a functional standpoint is when you come to a stop and you've been sitting

11:37for about 10 or 15 seconds the green light will start flashing which means it's no longer active

11:44so before you leave a stop light you've got to hit the bottom button here and activate it so that you'll

11:50have power when you go and of course you forget that all the time so sometimes when you're sitting at

11:55a light i just sit here and crack the throttle open a little bit to not really move but to keep it from

12:00going to sleep essentially to not having drive so that's just a functional thing you've got to watch

12:06when riding it in the urban environment for sure we've we've been in town now for about 15 20 minutes

12:15and the battery is doing awesome around town i mean it lasts so much longer just in this urban environment

12:23the the battery power really doesn't move that much so you can really get a lot of range around

12:30town and not have to worry about it really different than if you put any highway or anything into the

12:35factoring so as with all the stark marbles the sm is available on the website you can go in there you

12:43can put in all your specifics and order it how you want you can pick either a 60 horsepower model you

12:48choose an 80 horsepower model you have those options and then you can go through pick whatever

12:53tires you want they've got three different seat options but you can set up the suspension how you

12:59want set up the tires how you want set up the seat how you want and then beyond that there's not too

13:04many other options right now but like we said you get all of those european turn signals and lights and

13:11stuff like that in the box with it so if you don't like how it looks in the and with the us things you can

13:16switch those over but with stark you can either order the bike through a dealer or you can order

13:21it off the website and they'll deliver it to your house and then it comes in a crate with all that

13:25stuff in it and really detailed instructions on how to assemble it yourself doesn't look too difficult

13:31basically you're just putting the wheels on putting the handlebar on doing a couple things like that

13:36plug it in and you're ready to go it also comes with the the stand that's the battery charger and as we

13:42mentioned it also comes with the new backpack charger that is portable weighs about four pounds and you

13:47can take that and use it in a normal outlet somewhere else to charge it so that's the stark varg sm here

13:54from barcelona spain at the stark factory

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