Brand New Stark Varg EX Won’t Start — No LED, No Charging, No Bluetooth, No Response

[WoodsWeapon]

Did you make an update or used the lock feature? Or did you do something software related before?

No update, or lock use ever. Still waiting on initial reply from Stark. My dealer tells me to bring it in, but it’s a 2 hour drive I’d rather avoid.

 

[markhamr]

Take it to your dealer
stark is f useless

 

[John Lindemann]

Hi everyone,


I’m having a serious issue with my brand new Stark Varg EX, which has less than 2 hours of riding time and has never been crashed or dropped. I’ve only taken it out for short rides on the street (4 times total), and it ran perfectly — until today.

Here’s what happened:

• After 2 days of inactivity (bike stored safely in my garage), I tried to start it, but got no LED activity, it won’t start, no charging response, and no power at all.
• The battery was at 60% the last time I checked.
• The only thing I did differently after my last ride was locking the bike via the Stark app (Settings > Lock your bike)
• Now the Stark Arkenstone phone can't connect via Bluetooth — it's like the bike is completely powered off.

I’ve already tried the following without success:

• Pressed and held the power button for many seconds — no response.
• Tried power button combinations (+/- buttons) — still no response.
• Even after plugging in the charging cable, no blue LED lights up, and pressing the power button again yields nothing.

The bike simply feels completely dead.


Has anyone else experienced something similar?

Any advice or troubleshooting steps would be very helpful before I contact support.


Thanks in advance!


A.I.

This is what happened to my MX1.
The 3.7 Volt DC battery in the VCU discharged to 2.65 vdc. The bike was dead no lights, no noise nothing.
I removed the front fender and then carefully removed the cover from the VCU. The battery is mounted to that cover. I unplugged the battery from the VCU and charged it back to 4 vdc with my bench power supply (you could use any 4 volt dc source to charge). I then reinstalled the battery and VCU cover and the bike came back to life. I charged it and everything was good again.
I believe the switch on the handlebar stuck down when I powered the bike off. If any of the switches stick it drains the VCU battery.
Stark support supplied me with a replacement VCU and switch.
I hope this helps you.
Message me if you have questions.

 

[markhamr]

This site is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to your stark
It would be a lot better if stark just fixed the actual problems.

 

[DaveAusNor]

This site is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to your stark
It would be a lot better if stark just fixed the actual problems.

It seems they did. "Stark support supplied me with a replacement VCU and switch."

Be reasonable mate, you're way too negative towards a new company which is obviously going above and beyond to fix any teething problems with their first products. Never would you get the same level of support from any of the big producers.

 

[markhamr]

Give it up dave
I am still waiting for them to replace my bike with one that actually weighs 118 kgs
Or can complete a actual race. Thats 40 minutes plus 2 laps
DTE is 32 minutes 100 to 0

Stark has never got back to me about any issues.
As for comparing them with other manufactures they are a joke.
Mostly it is just a bunch of paid promotional videos and influencers,
not real racing at all.

 

[DaveAusNor]

Give it up dave
I am still waiting for them to replace my bike with one that actually weighs 118 kgs
Or can complete a actual race. Thats 40 minutes plus 2 laps
DTE is 32 minutes 100 to 0

Stark has never got back to me about any issues.
As for comparing them with other manufactures they are a joke.
Mostly it is just a bunch of paid promotional videos and influencers,
not real racing at all.

Give up what?
My bikes great. Weight not a problem for me but i'm probably a fair bit younger and stronger than you. I think you said you were late 50's and 60kgs or something, so that makes sense that it might be too much to handle for a smaller guy.
Have you actually tried your stark in a competitive moto, or are you speculating that you wouldn't finish? Look at some of the riders Stark has on their bikes doing fine with the equipment.

 

[markhamr]

lol you are joking right.
I can whip my 450 like a 125 its so light
and the weight of the stark is not a rider problem.
THE BIKE IS TOO HEAVY
I am that fit and strong
I could push 2 trains
I have just cut some firewood loaded the gate posts 350 rounds x8ft onto the
saw by hand (easy)
yeagh i am a old guy so try and keep up.

 

[DaveAusNor]

I have enough trouble keeping up with your train of though in your posts Mark. I hope one day you can get over how much the bike weights and appreciate it for what it is. But back to my question for you. Have you actually raced it in a moto yet or are you still just speculating that you wouldn't finish?

 

[markhamr]

The bike easily finishes one 20 minute moto but cannot backup for
a whole race day even charging at max.
As seen in a lot in videos where the bike cannot go out for
the final lap or moto.
As I have said and it is the only real problem I have with the bike
the rest is cold cheese.
STARK LIED ABOUT THE WEIGHT OF THE BIKE.

 

[Marshall G]

We get it dude, the bike is heavy. Sell it and move on with your life.

 

[OpaTsupa]

We get it dude, the bike is heavy. Sell it and move on with your life.

Highly recommended:

Guarantee you won't miss anything.

 

[WoodsWeapon]

Every forum has one guy…

 

[MotoBoy6996]

I have had this for most of the 19 months of MX ownership stark are clearly stalling in a big way, the way they see it is longer it takes to get fixed the longer before the next problem. Amazed they are still using the same design of actual buttons on the EX those have been an issue from the start, I was many times promised there was going to be a re design then get told you have to strip it down and clean it out as part of the maintance

You are not allowed to say bad things about stark on here only good, anton wass's marketing skills clearly extend to influencing what gets said about his products on the internet.

That blows! They need to step up their customer service. Luckily, other than a phone that can't keep track of mileage (something one might consider important on an electric bike with limited range) mine's been good. Hope you get resolution soon. Maybe take it to local dealer if there's one nearby?

Yup - It took about 3 weeks to get the replacement throttle!
And by then I was out of town and traveling for a few weeks...
Got back and installed the replacement throttle and nothing has changed.
I immediately reached out to Stark via email and 'AI Sam' and it's now been over 24hours without ANY response...
8(

 

[MotoBoy6996]

UPDATE: I sent my bike to the dealer, and they informed me that they are considering replacing the bike, as the issue might require remote intervention from a Stark engineer. However, they also mentioned that Stark appears to be very busy at the moment, so the chances of getting timely support are quite low. Btw, I'm based in eastern side of Europe.

My assumption is that the issue might be related to one or both of the following:

1. A software update I initiated just before the problem occurred
2. The use of the lock feature shortly before the incident

It’s possible I triggered a corner case in the software, though that’s purely speculative at this point.

Before reaching the decision to potentially replace the bike, my dealer attempted to resolve the issue by testing a VCU from another unit — unfortunately, that didn’t work. Not sure whether they tried to test a new battery.

So, for now, I’m waiting on a final decision from the dealer and will see how the situation develops.

My problem also started after using the 'Lock Bike' function...

Yup - It took about 3 weeks to get the replacement throttle!
And by then I was out of town and traveling for a few weeks...
Got back and installed the replacement throttle and nothing has changed.
I immediately reached out to Stark via email and 'AI Sam' and it's now been over 24hours without ANY response...
8(

 

[MotoBoy6996]

Did you make an update or used the lock feature? Or did you do something software related before?

My issue started after using the Lock feature...