NEW! STARK VARG EX is here!

[UKLee]

You are right about the buttons for sure. Stark should have bought those directly from Chinese manufacturers like the Japanese do. Farming stuff out to European subcontractors must be part of their tax deal or something. A lot of the parts on Stark and KTM(and friends) suffer from this EU buy local shit too. My 2014 WR450 has better buttons.

Honestly though, outside of those nits and the tire tubes my bike has been rock solid. And mostly way better than my 2020 KTM 300 2T. Crushes it really. Asian stuff is generally much better than Euro stuff when it comes to manufacturing. Sorry just is. But the core idea and getting there first is what European and American companies are good at. And I wasn't waiting 4 more years (or 10) for Yamaha et al to get off the pot --that is the price we paid for innovation.

For example when I bought the KTM I wanted injected 2T it was the only game in town and it wasn't cheap and it has Euro warts too, but the enjoyment in riding that for 4 years before I got my Stark was worth it.

That is just it, Comparing any bike to a modern ktm makes it look decent or acceptable. I still have 3 old 950 adventures another 3 520 exc's and an older 300 xc all good bikes. I had a 13 690 enduro the first FI ktm I had owned, had many FI issues with it and no one seemed to knew how to fix it (under warranty) I saw the way ktm and friends! were going and have refused to buy them ever since ( except a freeride E when we were desperate and it was a bargain) and looking at there current state justified I would say.

We have had mainly jap bikes for years now mostly yamaha WRF's and YZ 125's with hardly an issue also a 2019 africa twin I used for some desert rallys, totally reliable.
The Japanese are one of the few nations in the world who still have morels and it shows in most of the products they make.

Sorry but from what I am seeing from stark looks much like I was seeing from ktm 10 years ago, honest opinion form someone who pays full price for everything and chooses products based on good engineering not good marketing.

 

[UKLee]

Quite funny that the very things you mention have supposedly been corrected or implemented on the EX.

Also there are plenty of other issues some that have been fixed under warranty but replacment parts have been mostly the same again not the "Supposedly" upgraded parts intended for the EX.
You can see what stark are thinking. just keep sending the old parts in the hope they last the warranty, if they don't at least we will soak up a few weeks of the owners warranty whilst we take days to reply to messages, snail mail etc, they know exactly what they are doing so do some of us, the ones not wearing the Stark tinted spectacles!

 

[Chaconne]

That is just it, Comparing any bike to a modern ktm makes it look decent or acceptable. I still have 3 old 950 adventures another 3 520 exc's and an older 300 xc all good bikes. I had a 13 690 enduro the first FI ktm I had owned, had many FI issues with it and no one seemed to knew how to fix it (under warranty) I saw the way ktm and friends! were going and have refused to buy them ever since ( except a freeride E when we were desperate and it was a bargain) and looking at there current state justified I would say.

We have had mainly jap bikes for years now mostly yamaha WRF's and YZ 125's with hardly an issue also a 2019 africa twin I used for some desert rallys, totally reliable.
The Japanese are one of the few nations in the world who still have morels and it shows in most of the products they make.

Sorry but from what I am seeing from stark looks much like I was seeing from ktm 10 years ago, honest opinion form someone who pays full price for everything and chooses products based on good engineering not good marketing.

Friend, I have owned KTMs since the late 70s it has always been somewhat of a crap shoot on quality. And I have wasted many long hours of my life on everything from Bultacos to Maicos to Ossas and others. There is a reason they all disappeared and were largely replaced by Jap bikes --poor quality, overpricing, and failure to keep up. Rebranding the names to sell Chinese bikes is a different story.

Even the Japanese have been slipping the last few years on autos and they are losing interest in motorcycles (especially in dirt but in road too). I think they mostly realize that the Chinese and Indians are the next generation of industrial powerhouses that also include monster internal markets for 2-wheelers.

It would be great if the Chinese or Indians came out with a great E dirtbike that competed with the Stark. I didn't want to wait for them either though. Stark got there with what I wanted and I have been pretty happy (I understand that wasn't the case for you, it is kind of like KTM TPI it has been fantastic for me but I know more folks than average had motor seizures luck of the draw I think) The Chinese have shown they can make quality stuff but it won't be cheap if it is quality that is why your iPhone or Pixel 9 costs ~$1000.00 US. And that is before Trump's tariffs...