Post here your Stark Varg issues (or not!)

[Karinshi]

Took delivery of my EX in June 2025. It worked fine (except for the tubes) for the first 3 rides. Then it refused to take a charge. No falls, drops, water, hard hits.. nothing. Just a simple ride on some gravel roads and a mile of single track in the woods. Stark sent me a new charger to repair the issue after a couple of weeks of discussion. That didn't work. So after numerous emails and weeks of waiting, they finally assumed that the issue is the battery. They have agreed to send me a new battery, but require that I pay for the battery, shipping from the states to the Bahamas, cover the duty and VAT, and pay for returning the old battery to the states, then they'll refund me the purchase price of the battery. All in, that would cost me $4,500+ on top of the $3,000 battery cost that they'll eventually refund. And I'll have to do the repair myself.

Support has been extremely slow to respond, but courteous so far. I'm furious about what they expect me to pay to get this fixed though.

OMG that sounds terrible... im scared because my battery is starting the stop charging once it reaches like 78%... i cant charge it to a 100% anymore...
if i disconnect the cable and connect it again it continues charging and stops after 1 minute... repeat it again and maybe i can get it to 92/94% but i need to unplug/plug like 8 times... its the only way and is very time consuming

i send a ticket to Stark today, let see what they respond...

the APP that @brongle made can help me see if i have any bad cells... but in case i got them bad i dont know how to tell Stark that i know this, i am not supposed to know it. They can cancel my warranty for installing an external APP

Lets pray...

 

[Motosupa]

OMG that sounds terrible... im scared because my battery is starting the stop charging once it reaches like 78%... i cant charge it to a 100% anymore...
if i disconnect the cable and connect it again it continues charging and stops after 1 minute... repeat it again and maybe i can get it to 92/94% but i need to unplug/plug like 8 times... its the only way and is very time consuming

i send a ticket to Stark today, let see what they respond...

the APP that @brongle made can help me see if i have any bad cells... but in case i got them bad i dont know how to tell Stark that i know this, i am not supposed to know it. They can cancel my warranty for installing an external APP

Lets pray...

Hopefully you don't have the same issue, but it seems to be a more common problem lately. I wouldn't do any 3rd party apps. I'm avoiding any alterations at all because of the warranty.. but then again, if this is how they handle warranty claims.

My big concern is.. if the battery ends up NOT being the actual issue. Then I'm out $4500 and STILL have a broken bike. Then what?

 

[Karinshi]

Hopefully you don't have the same issue, but it seems to be a more common problem lately. I wouldn't do any 3rd party apps. I'm avoiding any alterations at all because of the warranty.. but then again, if this is how they handle warranty claims.

My big concern is.. if the battery ends up NOT being the actual issue. Then I'm out $4500 and STILL have a broken bike. Then what?

thats very strange man... at least in my country (Spain) that's not legal, they are require to replace the battery for free, you dont even have to pay for the transport

 

[drehwurm68]

I wouldn't do any 3rd party apps.

This app doesn't write anything to the bike so Stark will never know, but it could give you some pointers - nothing to loose here.

AFAIK the Bahamas do have some special relations to the US regarding tax and immigration so couldn't you just take the broken battery as a "import item for repair, no tax/vat" on a plane and bring back the new one instead - should be way cheaper than the 4.500$ you quoted? Usually there are always options for importing/exporting goods for repair between "friendly" countries, so I hope the Bahamas are still on that list for the US?

Michael

 

[OpaTsupa]

Took delivery of my EX in June 2025. It worked fine (except for the tubes) for the first 3 rides. Then it refused to take a charge. No falls, drops, water, hard hits.. nothing. Just a simple ride on some gravel roads and a mile of single track in the woods. Stark sent me a new charger to repair the issue after a couple of weeks of discussion. That didn't work. So after numerous emails and weeks of waiting, they finally assumed that the issue is the battery. They have agreed to send me a new battery, but require that I pay for the battery, shipping from the states to the Bahamas, cover the duty and VAT, and pay for returning the old battery to the states, then they'll refund me the purchase price of the battery. All in, that would cost me $4,500+ on top of the $3,000 battery cost that they'll eventually refund. And I'll have to do the repair myself.

Support has been extremely slow to respond, but courteous so far. I'm furious about what they expect me to pay to get this fixed though.

That is very unfortunate.
I commiserate wholly. Especially as my bike is from the same batch, and I'm, in a manner of speaking, on an island without support and surrounded by taxes.

My impression based on recent reports is that the good will from Stark company has ended. There will never again be "no questions asked" replacements. Customer support and hand-holding has also diminished.
I only hoped it will last for another year.

What do you plan to do?
Can you put the bike on a ferry and take it to a dealer in Florida?

 

[Erwin P]

I had some starting small issues with the battery but everything was stil working. Contacted them the 6th (Saturday) got a reply the following Wednesday, wich i replied that evening. Friday i got a request to plan a video call. Wich i planned for this morning. We made the call, they downloaded some data from the bike and promised to get back to me. They did early this afternoon and told me to pick a dealer to replace the battery in warranty.

 

[Motosupa]

This app doesn't write anything to the bike so Stark will never know, but it could give you some pointers - nothing to loose here.

AFAIK the Bahamas do have some special relations to the US regarding tax and immigration so couldn't you just take the broken battery as a "import item for repair, no tax/vat" on a plane and bring back the new one instead - should be way cheaper than the 4.500$ you quoted? Usually there are always options for importing/exporting goods for repair between "friendly" countries, so I hope the Bahamas are still on that list for the US?

Michael

Good to know on the app.

As for the duty on warranty items.. I can't get a clear answer, online or even from my friends in customs. All of my connections in freight tell me the rules changed and that I'm looking at 60% duty with 10% VAT. Plus, freight coming in is $300-500 while the return freight is the killer at $2500-3000. Shipping out is insanely difficult from my island. I usually send everything out with friends traveling to the US if I need to send anything. It would be less expensive for me to pay for overweight baggage on a commercial airline. But it's a battery so I can't do that either. I do have a couple of boating friends who could help me out in transport, but only one plans on leaving soon and I don't know him that well.

That is very unfortunate.
I commiserate wholly. Especially as my bike is from the same batch, and I'm, in a manner of speaking, on an island without support and surrounded by taxes.

My impression based on recent reports is that the good will from Stark company has ended. There will never again be "no questions asked" replacements. Customer support and hand-holding has also diminished.
I only hoped it will last for another year.

What do you plan to do?
Can you put the bike on a ferry and take it to a dealer in Florida?

Definitely feels like support has tanked from what it once was. Very unfortunate.

There's no ferry I can use for transport for repair. I've looked into it. Also, if I were to import it again after repair, I would pay duty on the bike again as a whole. It's the one thing the Bahamas does well.. tax everyone and everything and collect duty no matter what. Even if I had documentation on it.

My plan is to continue fighting for them to cover the return freight while I cover the freight in, duty, and taxes. That puts it at a 50/50 split on the cost. If they refuse, then I'll have no choice but to pay. In that case I would ask my friend/acquaintance to help by carrying it back to the states for me on his boat. But that's a bit concerning since it's a large crated item coming from the Bahamas out of sailing season lol. Maybe a bit suspicious. It's the only option for me to cut costs though.