Johnny Depp
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- Austin TX
I love this bike, but already have problems...
- Thread starter ew83
- Start date
Wrt people being made aware, can't agree more. This company is teetering dangerously to bait and switch. When they say you have dealers that will help with warranty and you find out they don't want to deal with you, how is that a warranty? If I can't get warranty service from a dealer, as advertised, how is it not a bait and switch?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 doesThis 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.
Also agree with the comment about actually using the bike. I bought this thing to ride it. I rode it for less than a month and now it's broke with bad comms from the company (3 days no response).
Well believe me I'm hoping it wasn't caused by water. I live in the PNW and ride wet conditions a lot. That was just the only thing different about the last ride than the ones before it. Could be coincidental.
F451
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- WA State, USA
They've been doing the bait and switch since they announced that they were taking pre-order NON-refundable deposits. They advertised the bike as 240 lbs, custom power maps, some other stuff that did not happen, I can't remember all the details. Bike is finally produced and being sold, its 265 lbs. 265 lbs! A porker. No custom power maps, but you can pay a subscription for that at some undetermined time in the future.
I did not follow through with the order, but they kept my $100 deposit despite my telling them I was due it back since the bike produced was not the bike I put a deposit down for. The very definition of bait and switch.
Now the bikes are having issues right and left, latest is you have to bring the bikes to a Stark dealership for service and it sounds like many of the dealerships are not interested in servicing them. And the "24/7 customer service", a total joke. And don't forget the early delivery problems where people were jumping the line, then dealers were getting allotments of bikes before customers who had ordered way before them. That was unbelievable.
I was a big fan of Stark for a long time, really wanted them to succeed. Now, so glad I did not buy one, what a cluster.
For all of you owners, I hope your bikes are working out, and for those with issues, I hope they all get resolved soon.
For now I'm still waiting for that 240 lb high quality, high performance dirt bike with customizable maps, quick swap batteries, good range, etc. Don't see anything on the horizon at the moment unfortunately.
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Johnny Depp
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- Austin TX
I got lucky, the local multi line dealer got the Stark right down the road and the GM is big on it and stocking accessories and talking positive. He encouraged me to order one from the website with them listed as the dealer, he said he gets paid more for that than actually selling one for the margin ($1200?). There's going to be good and bad dealers.
markhamr
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- blaxlands creek australia
lucky you won lotto jd
markhamr
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- blaxlands creek australia
Lets face it we all know what is letting the side down.
You keep saying QC issues and yes there are some but after 2 years of the first customer bikes going out and 3.5 years since we saw video of the first running bikes people are still having much the same issues with new bikes, I would be looking at design issues not QC.
Remember the Sh** show that was supposed to be the press day jurnos flew in from all over the world to ride the stark and had to stand around for hours waiting to just get a lap or 2 because the bikes would not keep running, the writing was on the wall then.
3 years ago we went to this inch perfect trials where you could hire an E pure electric trials bike for a few hours, impressive bit of kit and no issues with it, got talking with the guy in the shop and said I had a Stark ordered, He was telling me how stark were having lots of problems keeping the bikes running for any length of time and were getting desperate, so desperate they asked e pure for help. I kind of laughed at him and thought what a perthetic attempt at sales talk...as if.
Must say 3 years on and not much has changed what he was telling me might have had some trouth to it.
I’ve owned both an mx and now an ex. Had problems with both.. the mx charger came straight from Spain not working, had to be replaced. And the ex ran for about 50 miles before needing a power train replacement. So, small sample size but I’m getting %50 power train issues and %100 of orders have some kind of issueIf 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.
Jake
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- Washington State
Same issue on my EX, turned out to be a stuck kill switch
As I understand it a stuck kill switch drains the battery in the VCU, if that happens you get nothing no lights nothing. The battery is a p28A Molicel is that easy and safe to recharge?
Seems stark send out a new VCU to fix it which is going to end up being a 3 week at the dealers job plus a week raising a ticket.
We need to get our heads together and start working out the cheap and quick ways to fix these issues ourselves, once the warranty is up then stark will really screw us over, who knows what they will charge us for a VCU when it might only need the vcu battery charging or changing, same goes for £3200 power trains that might only need one small part to fix it....You would not scrap a complete ICE engind because it needs a spark plug!
I unplugged everything one at a time on the handlebars and still yellow light. Then plugged it all back in one at a time. Still yellow.
MotoxXxMan
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- Manchester, CT
*deleted*
I'm really not liking all these things stark is doing to their customers, and dealers. I'm glad I'm doing a diy conversion build, and not spending 4 times as much on something with so many issues and such terrible support. I'm really hoping its just a select few that it happens to, and its just a coincidence that a lot of them are posting about it here, giving an impression that it's more common than it really is. But then again, if its just a select few it happens to, stark should have no problem at all keeping up with everything in a timely manner.
My personal opinion, I'm quite unhappy with a LOT of ebike manufacturers lately. So many of them are so near to impossible to get warranty work done at all, let alone a timely manner. And so many of them have such dumb common issues, which are a big deal in most cases and not something simple like a line on the display, as compared to the bike being inoperable. I've had better customer service from the chinese manufacturers of the components I'll be using for my diy build than I've had with any actual ebike parts supplier, supplier, or manufacturer. It's quite disturbing, and really off-putting for the industry as a whole.
I really hope all of you with issues get a stroke of good luck in the immediate future.
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AL_V
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- Canton, Ohio
Perhaps you’re new to the concept of sarcasm?
But you are close.
I’m 65 years old, retired from the aircraft wheel and brake industry when covid stopped most folks from flying.
After buying my first Stark, I kept my older Ktm Gas bike as a back up.
After almost 350 hours, my Stark was diagnosed as needing a new battery, just in time for the “dealer mandate.”
So, I broke out the back up bike, but after riding a stark, I really didn’t want to ride anything else. So, expecting the dealer Battery swap to take some time, I was able to make a “trade-in“ deal with a private owner selling a stark, so, now my backup bike is another Stark.
I have 401(k) and pension money to enjoy, so, I think I’ve earned that choice.
By the way, no offense taken nor intended.
MotoxXxMan
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I am quite fluent in sarcasm. The way the rest of the comment was complaining, it didn't sound sarcastic though, it came off as if you were actually hoping/expecting to have stark provide you a loaner. I apologize if I completely misinterpreted. I'll delete it
AL_V
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- Canton, Ohio
The best sarcasm is based in truth.
Funny thing is, in the early days Stark was giving out loaner bikes in some cases.
"Funny thing is, in the early days Stark was giving out loaner bikes in some cases."
Let me guess, But they were also breaking down and it was getting very embarrassing ?
AL_V
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No, if that happened, I'm unaware.
I just thought it was funny, since it was and still is unheard of for a dirt bike manufacturer providing a loaner bike.
Chaconne
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- Massachusetts
Sorry did you purchase from a dealership or did you buy online?I’ve owned both an mx and now an ex. Had problems with both.. the mx charger came straight from Spain not working, had to be replaced. And the ex ran for about 50 miles before needing a power train replacement. So, small sample size but I’m getting %50 power train issues and %100 of orders have some kind of issue
I have purchased 2 Stark Varg MXs and had no problems with either except the tubes over the past 2 years. My first one was stolen after the first year of ownership I was very happy with it. So I bought an exact version from the same dealership a year newer and was the same. The dealership I used did a very thorough setup both times, they are known to be one of the best KTM shops on the East Coast US.
I thought Stark was going to run into problems with the mailorder concept from the start and I held off until a very reputable dealer was available to purchase. Now Stark is struggling with the transition that was bound to happen. DIY'ing any kind of complex machinery with the general public is bound to generate the sort of customer service problems that most OEMs are incapable of managing.
Chaconne
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Have you tried a firmware update? Not sure if it is the same on ex as mx but might be worth a try. On the MX you depress the mode buttons at the same time for 15 or so seconds.
