I love this bike, but already have problems...

I got a yellow light when I plugged my charger in the other day (EX). This was right after a rainy ride. It's been over 3 days now and I still get a yellow light when I plug it in, however, as of yesterday, it will sometimes go to blue and charge for a few seconds, then right back to yellow, randomly. Mostly stays yellow though (85% of the time).

I have never liked a bike this much. I really wanna give it a shot, but this has me a bit concerned.

First, does anyone have a fix? I contacted stark and so far all I've done is confirm it's not the charger by trying to charge the bike on another working charger (bike still won't charge).

I checked the left hand switches for moisture (none) and got some water out of the throttle (there was some in there and I have since turned the throttle housing upside down. I also unplugged the orange plug on the front of the battery and plugged it back in, and unplugged the vcu (I think .. round plug to the right of the orange plug in the front of the battery)and plugged back in with no luck.

I'm at a total loss for troubleshooting now. I'm really hoping it isn't the battery but I don't know. Also, if I can't ride the bike in wet conditions, there's a big problem for me as most of my riding is in the wet.

Hoping someone here can help me thanks in advance!

VCU plug is at 1.18 might be worth checking that is dry, Good luck.

UKLee said:

VCU plug is at 1.18 might be worth checking that is dry, Good luck.

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Thanks. It's dry.

If you have a steady yellow light with the charger connected it means that the bike realizes that the charger is connected but doesn’t receive current. For example if you accidentally unplug the charger from the wall you should see that yellow light. If sometimes it turns blue, then maybe there is some connection which is not stable.
However on an EX, if the charger is not the problem and there are no obvious problems with the charging port like some damaged pin, it’s hard to find a possible connection that the user can check.

Theo said:

If you have a steady yellow light with the charger connected it means that the bike realizes that the charger is connected but doesn’t receive current. For example if you accidentally unplug the charger from the wall you should see that yellow light. If sometimes it turns blue, then maybe there is some connection which is not stable.
However on an EX, if the charger is not the problem and there are no obvious problems with the charging port like some damaged pin, it’s hard to find a possible connection that the user can check.

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No pin damage I can see.

I know. This is very frustrating. I told myself that all the people with issues are a small minority, and here I am. Murphys law I guess.

Evpt23-32010 chárger for Stark enduro

rafagas said:

Evpt23-32010 chárger for Stark enduro
View attachment 14370

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What's the significance of this?

You can check the charger cables for play, if everything is tight.

rs911 said:

You can check the charger cables for play, if everything is tight.

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Cables are fine. I checked the bike on another charger and have the same issue on a confirmed good charger

ew83 said:

Cables are fine. I checked the bike on another charger and have the same issue on a confirmed good charger

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A friend of mine had a Stark MX that wouldn't charge on a good charger.
After a couple of weeks of email tag, they sent him a new power train.
However, they changed their policy in July, and now battery and power train replacements have to be done by a dealer.
It seems to be a Stark owner's responsibility to have a spare bike to ride during warranty work.
My battery went bad July 17, and the dealer still doesn't have the battery nor any tracking info from Stark.

AL_V said:

A friend of mine had a Stark MX that wouldn't charge on a good charger.
After a couple of weeks of email tag, they sent him a new power train.
However, they changed their policy in July, and now battery and power train replacements have to be done by a dealer.
It seems to be a Stark owner's responsibility to have a spare bike to ride during warranty work.
My battery went bad July 17, and the dealer still doesn't have the battery nor any tracking info from Stark.

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This is what I'm worried about. If that's the case I'd rather warranty the bike than wait months for parts. Plus, if it happens again, I'm supposed to do the same thing and wait months on end again? How do you trust a company after that? This has me wondering what it's like getting a bike warrantied

ew83 said:

I checked the bike on another charger and have the same issue on a confirmed good charger

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Did you use the "good" charger in the same environment (same wall plug/location, adapter, extension cord, ...) you are using your malfunctioning one? The charger has some protection circuits build in that react allergic to certain ground configurations/installations. This can be plug adapters that are wired incorrectly internally, faulty extension cables and even wall plugs. So to make 100% sure it is the bike you'd need a place where a Varg is charging just fine and then plug in your bike into the same setup to make sure.

Michael

drehwurm68 said:

Did you use the "good" charger in the same environment (same wall plug/location, adapter, extension cord, ...) you are using your malfunctioning one? The charger has some protection circuits build in that react allergic to certain ground configurations/installations. This can be plug adapters that are wired incorrectly internally, faulty extension cables and even wall plugs. So to make 100% sure it is the bike you'd need a place where a Varg is charging just fine and then plug in your bike into the same setup to make sure.

Michael

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Yes it was a different outlet and not at my house but a dealership where a stark was charging fine that morning

Sounds like the issue is at the bike end not the charger,
either internal wiring or the battery.
Ask your dealer to try a battery swap if they can.
To diagnose the problem eliminate this.
STARK are letting themselves down with all these problems.
I doubt it is a dew problem.
I ride in the wet.

markhamr said:

Sounds like the issue is at the bike end not the charger,
either internal wiring or the battery.
Ask your dealer to try a battery swap if they can.
To diagnose the problem eliminate this.
STARK are letting themselves down with all these problems.
I doubt it is a dew problem.
I ride in the wet.

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It ran perfect until the last ride in the wet. Hoping it's not a wet issue, I ride in rain more than sun.

I'm giving stark the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it's an easy fix and I'll have the bike running in a week. But I'm pretty disappointed in the "dealers." The closest 2 "dealers" don't have chargers for troubleshooting and don't seem to know anything about the bike. They also don't seem to be interested in fixing it. Who am I supposed to take my bike to to get fixed? I bought it direct from stark. Am I hosed if the "dealers" don't want to work on it? Some things apparently dealers have to do, like motor and battery replacements. So what then?

Anyhow like I said, we will see what the stark support people say tomorrow about the issue (if I get an email). Hoping for the best. Seems like for many people they've done great customer service. Hope that is the case with my issue.

ew83 said:

It ran perfect until the last ride in the wet. Hoping it's not a wet issue, I ride in rain more than sun.

I'm giving stark the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it's an easy fix and I'll have the bike running in a week. But I'm pretty disappointed in the "dealers." The closest 2 "dealers" don't have chargers for troubleshooting and don't seem to know anything about the bike. They also don't seem to be interested in fixing it. Who am I supposed to take my bike to to get fixed? I bought it direct from stark. Am I hosed if the "dealers" don't want to work on it? Some things apparently dealers have to do, like motor and battery replacements. So what then?

Anyhow like I said, we will see what the stark support people say tomorrow about the issue (if I get an email). Hoping for the best. Seems like for many people they've done great customer service. Hope that is the case with my issue.

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This is now going to be another problem.
Fact is dealers do not want to do warranty work, the manufacture/importer will not pay them the same hourly rate they can charge any walk in customer, at best they see it as a fill in job instead of sweeping the floor.

My stark has had more issues than most (loads) and I have always done the work fixing warranty issues, believe me this is painfull enough stark drag there heels and stall things as much as possible. Add a third party who are not very interested and it gets even worse.
My stark would not turn on no lights nothing tried another switch the same tried putting it on charge still nothing after getting the usual stark run around I get this message.....


"Please note that, as of July, powertrain and battery replacements must be carried out by an authorized dealer due to updated safety regulations.
We kindly ask you to contact an authorized dealer of your choice to arrange a suitable time to drop off your bike. You can find a list of dealers in our network here: Stark Future Dealers | Stark Future.
Once the dealer receives your bike, they will contact us immediately so we can begin coordinating the repair process.

Best regards,

Stark Future Team"

So takes the bike to a dealers at my cost, over a week later heard nothing rings them gets told the new part has arrived today but the person working on it is not in today he will put it on your bike tomorrow, rings again to be told the part has not arrived and tracking says a few more days until it does This how it goes, to be honest I do not blame the dealers it is not there problem I bought the bike direct from stark not through the dealer.

People should be made aware of these problems before buying a stark, many of the issues we were getting 2 years ago when the bikes first got to customers are still issues now even on new bikes and the EX, Listern to Anton Wass ( I try to avoid it!) and you would think the bike is near perfect but in reality those of us who do not treat them as garage queens and actully use them have plenty of problems, with the need now to take the bike to a dealer for most issues things just got even worse.

Keep us posted

Hard to tell from an internet forum if 1% or 20% of the bikes are affected by QC issues.

Don't think when OEMs come with their electric bikes they can out-spec Stark but sure they need to invest in dealer training, maybe not for more technical and potentially hazardous stuff like cells replacement but definitely for basic troubleshooting and parts swapping.

I bought my surron ultra bee from a e bike dealer when i had a question / not a a issue )there ev trained specialist(electronics technician had the answer .
and not one thing ever went wrong with it 2yrs now
I bought my stark from a motorcycle dealer,
no shame on him but they are not automatically high voltage ev technicians
It is a specialised field.
Always as helpful as they can be though.
It is way more than 20 percent beagle.

markhamr said:

It is way more than 20 percent beagle.

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If you count the Tesco bags tubes (loved this analogy from @chrismx72 ) it's quite possible, yes.

But if we're talking battery, power train, VCU, there is simply no way to know, could be 1% or 40% failures, that's my point.

An internet forum is a tiny subset of owners very likely to over-represent QC issues. Nothing malicious about it, it's mainly due to the fact that some people would just look for the forum in case of issues, and most owners without issues don't have anything to write about.

Even then, it would be very instructive to know how many of 2642 forum members own a Varg and then how many had issues with it (besides tubes and sidestand).

Unless you can come up with such numbers (or better, with over 2000 owners with such parts failures, to eliminate forum bias), then 1%, 20% or whatever, is nothing more than your opinion or gut feeling.

ha I am no trying to go anwhere else than trying to resolve the issues.
So while we are talking about the party balloons for tubes. POP