Media Review Media Week in Spain Discussion

[blbills]

With the media embargo lifting in just a few hours from now I wanted to create a thread to keep the information organized. We're about to get a firehose of content and it would be great to collate it here.

To say I'm excited for the 3rd party reviews (and just some new content really) is an understatement.

 

[Smerwin43]

Was just thinking about this, thank you.

 

[Philip]

In some slo-mo cornering shots, it appears that the Varg has a bit of power understeer. No big deal, nothing that we can't fix with some rear sag and the fork height adjustments.

 

[Number Six]

Most everything gleaned from the many 6/10 reviews is highly encouraging to say the least.
Stark made available a handful of modern 450 ICE bikes for comparison purposes - what manufacturer does THAT ? Gutsy, confident decision.
Of the tests I watched, no one preferred the gas bike to the Varg & given the dry-slick conditions , I have little trepidation about the bikes ability to get traction in off-road / enduro conditions.
Add to that comments like ; 'easiest to ride', 'best handling bike ever', & the fully programmable power, engine braking & flywheel effect & I'm even more excited to get mine delivered & out on the trails.
Stark gathered the worlds Moto-critics who's job it is to find fault & nit-pic & to a man everyone came away with the opinion ( it seemed to me anyway ) that Stark overdelivered even in light of the lofty claims made, at least from a performance perspective. An amazing accomplishment for a start up effort.
The electro-nerds & nay sayers can go on ad nauseam about run times & such ... I'll likely be @ 75% of 60HP peak mostly for trail riding & have every confidence that 3-4 hours will be a reasonable expectation given the terrain we ride where we are off throttle 40% of the time.
It's apparent that the team assembled for the project were indeed highly capable & the vision resolute.
Glad I ordered early ...

.

 

[Philip]

I think I will try to keep mine at 80hp but play with traction control instead. I want to scare myself, but stay safe at the same time, LOL!

 

[Philip]

Motocross Action didn't make it??? Really? Hah. Oh well...

 

[Smerwin43]

Motocross Action didn't make it??? Really? Hah. Oh well…

This one stings in my opinion, I was really excited to hear what Josh Mosiman thought about it but his opportunity at hangtown was pretty sweet too…
No way anyone could have pulled me from the stark though haha.

 

[Smerwin43]

Although this is from swap I believe it falls under the category of discussion, great interview. Great to hear these interviews from Anton when we can.

 

[blbills]

Great interview! Absolutely love the transparency.

I'm going to go out on a limb and venture to say that "surprise #2" is that bike stand with the build in charger that's featured very prominently in this video...

 

[Oded]

I just wish they would let someone like Graham Jarvis put the bike into its paces. Wonder how well it can survive ours of Jarvis style abuse on different terrains. MX guys like it, got it. Time to let the hard Enduro guys in the party.

 

[fsfs]

I just wish they would let someone like Graham Jarvis put the bike into its paces. Wonder how well it can survive ours of Jarvis style abuse on different terrains. MX guys like it, got it. Time to let the hard Enduro guys in the party.

In addition of putting on a large media event a bunch of other things need to be done. The factory needs to start running. This is not isolated from the development engineers.

The behavior of the bike is in large part dependent on the software -- a lot of work remains especially with regard to enduro. All i can say is "patience". Today people are used to instant gratification, but doing things like the Varg takes time. Stark showed the Varg in a very "raw" software state (no virtual flywheel, no traction control) while knowing that it is a far more software dependent machine than combustion bikes. I doubt any of the major manufacturers would do anything like that.

This was started less than 3 years ago. Consider that the electric motor and all electronics were developed specifically for the Varg and did not exist before work started on the bike. The chassis is completely custom because it conforms to the battery and electric motor. This is a very fast pace. Also consider that much of the software cannot be started before working bikes are available -- and that was late last year.

So again - patience.

 

[Philip]

Stark showed the Varg in a very "raw" software state (no virtual flywheel, no traction control) while knowing that it is a far more software dependent machine than combustion bikes.

This is very-very important! Thank you for clarifying that!

I noticed folks were fiddling with the % of max power setting and the regen brake setting only. And on a 60-hp model most were fairly comfortable when the power was set to 90%. This is a good baseline already. With a tunable TC and virtual flywheel this bike can be made comfortable and rideable for anyone, even the 80-hp model set at 100% power.

With a good traction control and virtual flywheel I will only be concerned about looping out at a high speed. Will there be any wheelie control added?

 

[C5tor]

I definitely need that auto-wheelie button! My anti-wheelie gene expresses itself strongly, with a definite forward weight-bias in the tummy region and cajones shrinking tendencies when faced with wheel loft angles above 3 degrees. I need all the electronic assistance I can get to overcome this annoying deficiency.

 

[Philip]

I want a 5" front wheel lift going down the entire length of the starting straightaway please!

 

[fsfs]

I want a 5" front wheel lift going down the entire length of the starting straightaway please!

At first I saw that as 5' instead of of 5". There was a piece of junk on the screen. Reminded me of the Spinal Tap Stonehenge scene, but reversed.

Sure you don't want 5 feet instead - would be a lot more spectacular.

 

[Number Six]

fsfs - in a word ; Reverse !
Give us reverse please. beep-beep-beep

 

[fsfs]

fsfs - in a word ; Reverse !
Give us reverse please. beep-beep-beep

The plan is for the bike to have three buttons on the left side. start/stop, map-up, map-down.
On the right side we have only the throttle. Any idea how to engage reverse?

 

[Number Six]

Why yes, yes I do ..
A locking momentary button type switch. In 'on' position I'd guess it would reverse polarity & spin everything backwards ?
Mount it about anywhere, it's not needed on the fly ; throttle off / push button / reverse engages with throttle application @ highly reduced power / throttle off & push button again to disengage & carry on in forward direction.
If Sur-Ron can figure it out, surely Stark Future can as well
For those of us that sometimes get it all wrong & stuff our bikes hopelessly deep into the bushes - reverse would save a LOT of energy as tugging a bike backwards is hard.
Read somewhere that 40-ish percent of pre orders specified 18" rear wheel, apparently Varg is going to spend a lot of time in the woods.
Hey, it's a luxury item - make it even more luxurious vis a vie reverse on demand !
.

 

[Philip]

I would take a Horn button over any Reverse button on any day!

Yes, a Horn button must come standard on ALL MODELS!

 

[privateer703]

You should be able to do it using the existing buttons, something like hold the map down button for more than 5 seconds. Or press it 5 times in a row real fast.