This New 275-Pound, 80 HP Electric Motorcycle Sounds So Fun It Might Be Worth Its $13,900 Price Tag

One of the hardest electric vehicle segments to break into in America is electric motorcycles. While buyers have been more than willing to drop piles of dough on the latest Tesla or General Motors electric car, the electric motorcycle market hasn’t been as lucky. Many electric motorcycles command a lot of money for a spec sheet that Americans are largely rejecting. One startup sees itself changing this trajectory. This is the Stark Varg SM, and this little street-legal bugger weighs only 275 pounds, yet punches out up to 80 horsepower. It gets even cooler from there.

I’ve talked about the issues facing electric motorcycles in America before, but the short version is that many electric motorcycles on the American market cost a ton of money for limited returns. I’ll give an example. One of my favorite motorcycle experiences in recent times was the new BRP Can-Am Pulse. It’s so fun to ride, so flickable, and has genuinely innovative engineering behind it. But you’re also paying $13,999 for a motorcycle that, in my experience, has a range of less than 100 miles in the real world, and that’s even in an urban environment. Its other specs don’t really make the price easier to swallow, either.

Conditions in America are rough enough that Zero, one of the world’s leading electric motorcycle producers, is leaving California for Netherlands. This is happening because Europe is Zero’s largest market, even though Zero is an American brand.

Here’s where the Stark Varg SM above comes in. This motorcycle does not have a lot of range, nor is it even super affordable. However, this Supermoto offers something different for the money you pay, and it’s stupid fast. Or, specifically, Stark Future calls it “The World’s Most Powerful Supermoto.” That’s a big claim!

From Spain

Stark Future was founded in Spain in 2020 by Swedish businessman and lifelong motorcyclist Anton Wass. Before starting Stark Future, Wass was a founder of 24MX, Europe’s largest store for enduro and motocross motorcycles. Wass had an ambitious dream with Stark Future, and it was to prove to the world that electric motocross bikes were as good or better than their gasoline counterparts.

In 2022, the company launched its first product, the Varg MX, and surprised the motorcycling world with it. Countless electric motorcycle startups haven’t even produced a single physical product yet, and many have been gobbled up by the tough market. The electric motorcycle market is such a hard one that even household names like Honda have been slow to bring electric bikes to America, while Harley-Davidson spin-off LiveWire has unfortunately burned millions of dollars. Stark Future has been one of a handful of motorcycle startup success stories.

Stark Future started its journey in the off-road segment, and those of us who ride on the road were left out. In an interview with Cycle World, Wass admitted that making a cheap, low-power electric scooter would have been easy. After all, those types of electric bikes are all over Asia. But he wanted to do something different and came out swinging with a high-performance off-road bike. That’s a major reason why I have not covered this company yet. That changes now with the launch of Varg SM, Stark’s first street-legal project.

Electric Supermoto

The Varg SM is based on the architecture that underpins the Varg MX and EX off-road bikes, creating a Supermoto. In case you’re curious, a Supermoto motorcycle typically has the ingredients of an off-road bike, but converted to a road-going form. What you often end up with is a minimal, lightweight motorcycle that does all kinds of wheelies and stunts for days. The basic Supermoto recipe is pretty straightforward, and you get a pair of 17-inch wheels, big brakes, a road-friendly suspension, and often, a nice and short wheelbase.

The Varg SM follows this formula to the letter. The Varg SM starts as a tubular steel frame with a welded aluminum subframe on its back. Mounted to that is a 7.2 kWh battery, which feeds juice to a 360V PMAC electric motor that’s good for 60 HP in the standard version, and 80 HP in the hotter Alpha model. Stark says the bike weighs just 275 pounds. Because of this, Stark claims that the Varg SM has the highest power-to-weight ratio of any Supermoto in the world.

To put that into perspective, a Honda Grom weighs 224 pounds and has a tick under 10 HP. Alright, that one was just for giggles because I love tiny street-legal minibikes. What’s really neat is the Varg SM stacked up against other Supermoto. A Husqvarna 701 Supermoto weighs 324 pounds and makes 74 HP. Meanwhile, a KTM 690 SMC-R has 79 HP and weighs 338 pounds. Basically, the Varg SM makes a touch more power than similar gas bikes with less weight.

Stark continues by saying that the Varg SM makes 673 ft-lb of torque. Now, before you roll your eyes at yet another absurd electric motorcycle torque claim, I will stop you and say that Stark probably isn’t exaggerating. Electric motorcycle companies just use different math. When you look up a gas bike, you’ll find that the manufacturer measures engine torque at the crank. Electric bikes get their torque numbers at the wheel.

The huge difference in numbers is due to gear reduction, which multiplies the torque from the source engine or electric motor. A gas engine will often see a much higher multiplication factor much higher than the multiplication factor of an electric motor. I highly recommend watching RevZilla’s video (above) on this subject because it gives some incredible clarity.

If you don’t have the time, I’ll give you an example. A Yamaha MT-07 that makes 48 lb-ft of torque at the crank makes 682 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheel due to this reduction and its wheel radius. So, the Varg SM’s 673 lb-ft of torque sounds crazy, but that’s just because gear reduction is funny like that. Is quoting torque a different way a misleading form of marketing? I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

Still, weird torque figure or not, it’s clear that the Varg SM is a powerful little bike. Stark continues the Supermoto formula with a fully adjustable 48 mm KYB fork, an adjustable KYB shock in the rear, a model-specific triple clamp, and 17-inch wheels. Stark dirt models have 21-inch front wheels and 18-inch rear wheels. Stopping power is handled through a Brembo Stylema four-piston caliper up front and a two-pot caliper in the rear. These munch on a 320mm disc and a 220mm plate, respectively. ABS? Sure, your brain is your ABS.

Other things to note include seat height, which stands tall at 36.8 inches, and wheelbase, which is a nice and short 57.9 inches.

Now we get to the elephant in the room. Stark Future says that the Varg SM is good for between 50.3 to 73 miles of range. There’s no way around it, that’s pretty terrible. However, Stark Future thinks that you won’t care because you’ll either be riding this thing around a city like an absolute hooligan, or you’ll be racing it on a track. At the very least, the bike tries to make up for the lack of range with the silly power.

At the very least, Stark says that, when you use the bike’s off-board 240V charger (above), you get a charging rate of 3.3 kW and can top it up in around two hours. Of course, you’ll need a compatible plug to charge that fast. Also, not having a built-in charger means that you have to carry the external charger around with you if you plan on charging while out and about. You’ll also have to buy a J1772 to Nema adaptor to have any real shot of using a public charger. At the very least, Stark says the charger fits easily into a backpack.

Seems Wheelie Fun, But

So, yeah, this bike clearly has a lot of compromises. This is absolutely not a motorcycle for highway commuting, and I’d argue it’s not even that good for country roads, either. But if your idea of fun is doing wheelies around Chicago or Los Angeles, a Varg SM sounds pretty cool.

Stark says this ride will set you back $12,990 for the standard 60 HP version and $13,900 for the 80 HP Alpha version. That is a ton of cash, no doubt, but at least you get something that should be a ton of fun to ride? Weirdly, the press imagery doesn’t show turn signals or mirrors, but Stark says the Varg SM is street-legal. Upon purchase, you’ll get a Certificate of Conformity as well as a Manufacturer’s Statement of Origin.

There’s other good news, too. Stark sells all sorts of parts, right down to the bike’s frame and its electronics. So, if you wreck this motorcycle, you can rebuild it yourself if you want to. Stark also says that you get to choose from Pirelli Diablo Rosso IV, Dunlop SportsmartTT, Michelin Road 6, and AnlasGrip Plus tires, and the wheels are compatible with tubes if you want to run them. Stark says that if you placed an order now, you’d get your Varg SM in early January 2026.

Some other interesting news is that, if you don’t really like this bike, Stark is working on a new purpose-built roadgoing motorcycle. But that one is coming later.

I think there’s a lot to like here. This bike is super lightweight, pretty tiny, and it sounds like a real ball of fun. On the other hand, the range sucks and there isn’t an onboard charger. Is it worth $13,900? I think it could be for the right buyer. The bigger question, I think, is if Stark’s first road bike be a success. Street-based electric motorcycles have struggled so hard in America. Will the Varg SM be different?