Stark Varg SM enough range for my use?

[Sproesser]

Hey all,
I want a Stark Varg SM to commute to town, but I'm worried about the range. Round trip is 40 miles with 4000ft elevation drop into town, and up on the way back. 60 mph speed limit for 32 miles, and around town speeds the other 8 miles. Warm to hot climate. I don't want to have to put around either, or I'd just get a 390 duke with 75 mpg for cheap. Does anyone have experience enough to answer this? Thanks!

 

[brongle]

Hey all,
I want a Stark Varg SM to commute to town, but I'm worried about the range. Round trip is 40 miles with 4000ft elevation drop into town, and up on the way back. 60 mph speed limit for 32 miles, and around town speeds the other 8 miles. Warm to hot climate. I don't want to have to put around either, or I'd just get a 390 duke with 75 mpg for cheap. Does anyone have experience enough to answer this? Thanks!

40mi is very doable, although 30mi at 60mph is maybe not. For reference cruising around 45mph usually nets me 1mi per 2%, 60+ will give you more like 1mi per 3-5% which is quite bad. I have a few range-test videos w/ the phone and mileage overlays on YouTube done on my EX with 17s (so very comparable), might give you a better idea of battery burn-rate for your specific situation:

• 32mi / 58%
• 48mi / 77%
• 40mi / 85% (colder weather, but you can really see how bad the 60+ battery burnrate is, from 15:00 to 16:00)

 

[Beagle]

If you have any possibility to charge in town, the portable charger should do the trick, even just toping up for 30 min at 110 V should give you an extra 10-15%?

 

[Caryder]

Agree, if you could charge in town it likely wouldn’t be a problem, but that 16 mile run @ 60 mph & the up hill stretch will kill your range. When my Alta was new and geared for 90 mph on adventure type tires, I could barely squeeze 40 miles out of it at surface street speeds. If I did just a few miles of interstate @ 65 it cut my range to less than 20.

For comparison the duke might get 75 mpg commuting to work but probably closer to 40 mpg heading home.

 

[AbnormalWrench]

I have used my Varg EX with street tires to attempt to commute to my girlfriends house 34 mile away on the freeway (no real elevation change overall). For whatever reason, the Varg is really really bad on the freeway, as far as efficiency goes. I can barely make it to her house going slow on the freeway, one way.

With EV's, you always have to keep in mind that the initial range is short-lived. You should take the best-case scenario and subtract 20% because that will be the long term reality. I recently bought a Livewire S2, which is much much better on the freeway. Has better power, has cruise control and way better range. And is cheaper than the Varg. Just a suggestion, if you can't afford to buy both bikes!

 

[Caryder]

I have used my Varg EX with street tires to attempt to commute to my girlfriends house 34 mile away on the freeway (no real elevation change overall). For whatever reason, the Varg is really really bad on the freeway, as far as efficiency goes. I can barely make it to her house going slow on the freeway, one way.

With EV's, you always have to keep in mind that the initial range is short-lived. You should take the best-case scenario and subtract 20% because that will be the long term reality. I recently bought a Livewire S2, which is much much better on the freeway. Has better power, has cruise control and way better range. And is cheaper than the Varg. Just a suggestion, if you can't afford to buy both bikes!

Yeah, the freeway really kills the range on a bike designed for dirt. Not even remotely aerodynamic. I would have thought the Varg might do better. Alternately there are quite a few choices for street oriented electrics, but a 390 duke would be quite a bit cheaper.

 

[AbnormalWrench]

Yeah, the freeway really kills the range on a bike designed for dirt. Not even remotely aerodynamic. I would have thought the Varg might do better. Alternately there are quite a few choices for street oriented electrics, but a 390 duke would be quite a bit cheaper.

Agreed. The 390 is a great bike, overall. Really hard to beat the price