Stark Varg burned

this video on instagram does not look fake, does anyone know more about it?

Looks legit.
On the web I've seen one Varg burnt in Belgium (or was it the Netherlands?), then one idiot street riding crash (in Brazil?) where the fall punctured the phone battery.

I wonder if we would ever know what happened here. At least it didn't explode, you can pretty much count the cells

Yes EV catch fire, yes thermal runaway make Li fire much different and harder to put out.
Yet studies by car insurance show that fire is much less frequent for EV than ICE cars.

I understand that probably no one at that track had a Li fire extinguisher with vermiculite (cost a hundred bucks, if you have an EV, you should have one) but I'm amazed at the apparent complete lack of safety at this track, guys just keep ripping and that's it?
The hazard could have been real had the grass caught fire, just put some dirt over and around the poor thing.

This looks like the same incident

Looks like it's Bostwick Creek Motocross Park, FL

Beagle said:

Looks legit.
On the web I've seen one Varg burnt in Belgium (or was it the Netherlands?), then one idiot street riding crash (in Brazil?) where the fall punctured the phone battery.

I wonder if we would ever know what happened here. At least it didn't explode, you can pretty much count the cells

Yes EV catch fire, yes thermal runaway make Li fire much different and harder to put out.
Yet studies by car insurance show that fire is much less frequent for EV than ICE cars.

I understand that probably no one at that track had a Li fire extinguisher with vermiculite (cost a hundred bucks, if you have an EV, you should have one) but I'm amazed at the apparent complete lack of safety at this track, guys just keep ripping and that's it?
The hazard could have been real had the grass caught fire, just put some dirt over and around the poor thing.

Click to expand...

Was in the Netherlands at one of our local tracks (Motodrome Emmen)

However it turned out that the guy made his own killswitch relais in the main current. That killswitch relais (on top off the battery) caught fire and thus later the battery.
But that was as much Starks fault as a guy winding his fuel hose around his exhaust on an ICE. Got a new bike from Stark though.

In that case the cells came out 1 by 1 like firecrackers.

Erwin P said:

Was in the Netherlands at one of our local tracks (Motodrome Emmen)

However it turned out that the guy made his own killswitch relais in the main current. That killswitch relais (on top off the battery) caught fire and thus later the battery.
But that was as much Starks fault as a guy winding his fuel hose around his exhaust on an ICE. Got a new bike from Stark though.

In that case the cells came out 1 by 1 like firecrackers.

Click to expand...

I agree, it's possible that it's happened because of modifications.
When there is a flood for example, especially if salt water is involved, EVs can catch fire, even days after the water intrusion, because of the short circuit generated by the water. I guess that it is possible that there was some water intrusion in that battery, maybe from some prolonged and/or too intense powerwashing and the owner may not even relate the two events.
Or maybe someone opened that battery and closed it with moisture inside it. Or who knows what can have happened.
Surely it would be useful to find out how it has happened.

And it could be as negative as a production error.

The sad thing is EV's always get much more attention. There are many examples of KTM 690's burning to the ground after the rear tank/subframe can't handle the amount of luggage people strap to it and bends all the way to the exhaust. A shit design? Not for it's intended purposes, but it is for the purpose people give it.

Hard thing though is to stop a fire on a EV. A Stark has a small battery and mostly happens on a sandy MX track, so not much going on there. But a big car battery catching fire is a nightmare for the fireman.

Erwin P said:

Was in the Netherlands at one of our local tracks (Motodrome Emmen)

However it turned out that the guy made his own killswitch relais in the main current. That killswitch relais (on top off the battery) caught fire and thus later the battery.
But that was as much Starks fault as a guy winding his fuel hose around his exhaust on an ICE. Got a new bike from Stark though.

In that case the cells came out 1 by 1 like firecrackers.

Click to expand...

Don't understand why Stark would give him a new bike. They should have presented him with a runner up Darwin award and better luck next time.

The fire thing is a scare campaign.
Be safe always when operating any machinery.
!00s of petrol cars and bikes catch fire every day.
I am going to go buy the correct extinguisher now though,
so some good has come out of it.
I take it he modified it too alleviate his (what if the throttle sticks open) anxiety.
Something I don't worry about as in that situation your best bet is to part with the bike,
it is usually too late for anything else anyway.

Hard thing though is to stop a fire on a EV. A Stark has a small battery and mostly happens on a sandy MX track,
That comments a bit of a worry erwin.
I doubt it has happened often though.

He actually has a rental company where you could rent ''E MX bikes'' bikes round a simple MX track. In heats like karting.
Up to that point he just had KTM Freerides. However he also bought a Stark and just used it at 15 hp for customers and thus liked to have a killswitch. Then he privately went to a big heavy sand track and used full power. Lost power on the track. Was on his way pushing it to the van, it started smoking, he put it at the cleaning area and there it caught on fire.

@Chaconne
Stark replced it before they could do any investigation. It was in the very early days and they couldn't use any bad publishity back then i guess.
I believe this happened on a tuesday or wednesday. In the weekend he had a new bike.

yeagh that was just stupid.
You cant help fools.
I tried mine set on full
that didn't work.
Let alone fk&g with the wiring.

brown outs are a evs worst enemy

Try it again. 80hp has been doing fine since the very first update.

markhamr said:

brown outs are a evs worst enemy

Click to expand...

Not for me I have a solar panel and I charge a battery power station and charge my bike off of them. I rode from last Spring till now every other weekend off pure solar. Now that we are moving into fall I am using a little grid + solar.

Because I use portable panel and I live in a condo it is hard to get good position in a fixed location (I have no yard in my current living situation) --and I live in New England not the best for solar but good enough to ride my dirt bike off the Sun almost 6 months of the year (Apr-Sept).

Erwin P said:

The sad thing is EV's always get much more attention. There are many examples of KTM 690's burning to the ground after the rear tank/subframe can't handle the amount of luggage people strap to it and bends all the way to the exhaust. A shit design? Not for it's intended purposes, but it is for the purpose people give it.

Click to expand...

I've indeed found videos of motocrycles having a rear fuel tank catching fire and I'll post some, to put things into perspective, since EV haters are indeed very ready to state they've never seen a gas bike catching fire:
but i've also found others of front tank bikes catching fire.

Overall, EVs are way less likely to catch fire, although e-bikes are more likely than cars since the batteries are not liquid cooled and they usually have NMC batteries instead of LFPs.

It also occurred to me that on this forum I've seen open batteries and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the Varg which ended up on fire had a battery that had been opened. Sorry again for my usual broken record mode, but I always say that IMO one of the reasons for which those batteries shouldn't be opened, aside from the electrocution possibility, is the possibility to introduce moisture inside them that could later result in something like that.

EDIT: apparently, they've recently sent emails recommending the use of the OEM skid plate to prevent cracks and fires, maybe as a consequence of this.

My 2014 WR450F would boil the gas during normal use stock from the factory until I added a cooling fan. The way I found about it was I parked my bike in the garage after a ride and went to my work room and when I came back to the garage my 8 year old son asked my what was the sound my bike was making. Sure enough the gasoline was boiling in the tank.

I am a lot less worried about a battery than I am a volatile solution being brought boil in an enclosed garage --just sayin. There was nothing in the manual and I had to buy the fan aftermarket.

On that skidplate. I've bern saying that for a while now. Their cush damping is much cleverer than any other.

Also to see how serious they are. Try to overtighten a bashplate bolt into the battery. The bolt will snap way before battery damage. At something like 40Nm.