Two days trail riding, free-riding in places where helicopters would chase gas-powered bikes, more wheelies and stoppies than we counted, a BBQ and some beer – Stark’s Pyrenees trail tour teaches Enduro21 stuff we didn’t about the Varg EX.

Stark are missing a trick here. Based on our two-day ride in the mountains, the Stark Destination tour in the Pyrenees, it left us asking Stark: “why don’t you make a trail bike?”

Now the homologated EX (enduro) model is a reality and flying out the Barcelona factory, Enduro21 finally got to spend some time riding in the real world with a couple of days on the Pyrenees trails.

In the mountains near La Molina where the cattle and horses roam free, MTB riders and farmers give you a nod and a wave and life is seemingly simple, it was a chance for Stark to shine a favourable light on their bikes by letting us ride in places you simply couldn’t on a gas-powered dirt bike.

More importantly it gave us chance to put hours on the most talked about off-road motorcycles. Here’s what we discovered…

A DR-Z, KLR, XR or XTrainer beater?

Can the Varg possibly be a challenger to a DR-Z, KLR, XR or XTrainer? If you like a bike to be simple to run and own, easy to maintain, versatile and the kind of bike you can swing a leg over and just set off then, yes.

The questions we couldn’t help pondering on this ride were: can it handle trail riding and would the battery last. The answer to A) is a resounding “duh, of course” and to B) it became quite obvious by the time we had a beer in our hand after two days riding

If you are that XR250 rider who chugs away for hours on a tank of fuel then the Varg can do that. The battery and ride time is there, really, and your only thought should be where am I parking at night to plug it in.

We think it goes without saying but if you take a Varg to an MX track or even a cross-country race, it’ll burn through the juice. But waft along like a seasoned XR 250 rider means mountain trails are yours for the taking.

The difference in mindset is what gets people: can I do the same as riding on a tank of gas? You would begin thinking as much about range but in no time that kind of evaporates when you learn the bike.

How you ride dictates how far you ride

Don’t get us wrong, we like a wheelie and a stoppie as much as the next guy. Our ride was a long one in terms of door-to-door time – we ate breakfast, set off on a long morning, had a lengthy lunch stop and returned for late afternoon.

The riding was a real mix of street, trail, single goat tracks and a fair amount of off-piste messing about on technical hills, plus plenty of wheelies all of which added to the power consumption.

Full disclosure, Stark top-up charged the bikes during the lunch stop but by our rough maths they didn’t need to on our bike, it would have lasted a single charge.

In the end it was clear the steady riders in our mixed ability group would have easily gone all day, while the Italian motocross guy hooked by the addictive power on tap, or Stark factory rider Eddie Karlsson, wouldn’t.

Our guide on this trip, a guy with a lot of local knowledge from years of MTB riding in the Cerdanya region, says he did the reccy on a single charge and we can believe it.

Enduro21? We joined in the fun as much as the next guy but also tend to be pretty Jarvis-like on the throttle (like an old trials rider) and we calculate we would have finished with around 10% spare.

Any bike you like, in one bike

Our ride group for this test had a wide range of abilities and the truth is all were happy playing, enjoying the ride and views and not worrying so much about battery life – though it remains a topic of conversation on the ride.

Away from the tapes and timing beams of competition, if you’re the kind of person who just goes for a ride, then you might be open to any bike on planet earth so long as it floats your boat and is the right price.

You probably want something which is easy to live with, simple, controllable, and widely useful to suit different riders and riding conditions. That is the Varg EX.

In this context and trail riding environment, in the mountains and essentially doodling along as fast or as slow as you like, the Varg quickly becomes a rival for the hugely Beta XTrainer. You can compare it to KTM’s Freeride or the other ‘not-real-sized’ bikes out there but we found it trumps those bikes because it’s tuneable to novice and expert riders.

The good stuff – the Brembo brakes, the decent skid plate and rear disk protector, the decent (though not perfect) KYB suspension all as standard – makes it an enduro bike first but also a better version of a do-it-all bike too.

You came to the right place

Trail riders and racers in equal measure are being surprised by how good the Varg is to ride. The same goes for MTB riders who find the easy transition from pedals to footpegs (and enjoy how much cheaper this bike is compared to some downhill bikes!).

Having the right riding position with a well curated the footpeg-to-handlebar ratio makes any bike easy to spend time on – it’s something Triumph also nailed in the recent launch of their enduro models for example.

The reality is the Varg hides its additional few kilos of weight and you never really feel the extra 10kgs (compared to a four-stroke enduro or motocross bike) until you get off the bike and do something like lift it on a bike stand or pick up the back to position the rear wheel in a rut or out of a hole.

Overall the ‘cockpit’ or rider area on the Varg is roomy and that makes it easier to ride, especially on a trail ride where you want the comfort and manageability.

My 16-year-old could do this

One huge bonus the Varg EX has, and a way in which a younger generation are literally getting switched on to dirt bikes, is the technology.

The control you have at the touch of the handlebar buttons to change between maps and swing massively the way the bike performs is something no other dirt bike matches. it also gives the option to limit power for the learners among us. 

The Android phone on the bar mount adjusts the power and engine braking, has options to change the bike character as well as communicate, take selfies and talk to home. We also used the option for GPS mapping on this trip which made navigating the trails around La Molina easy.

For the record the GPS navigation worked flawlessly except for two times when it blinked for a second due to lack of signal. In a mountain region like this we call that pretty, damn good and can certainly can name more frustrating GPS units we’ve used.

For a generation growing up with the world at their fingertips, this isn’t revolutionary or anything extraordinary, it is expected and the norm. It’s what makes sense to the Alpha generation.

Quality vibes

Stark’s philosophy to do the right thing with the Varg from the very start, to develop and manufacture a quality motorcycle, with the best components, makes a difference.

It’s part of the vibe around the bike, the factory, the products and the people. Get it right first time and build a reputation seems to be working as a philosophy judging by the amount of EX Vargs going out the Barcelona factory.

Building the bikes and batteries in-house, sourcing parts locally, the investment in 3D printing their own parts, the customer support team, the bespoke tool kit you get with it as standard all adds up to a quality and focus on the owner which, to be honest, we don’t find often enough with other manufacturers.

The other thing is when people jump on a Varg it feels pretty good. It’s a very well-balanced dirt bike to ride and easy to use. No gas, no air filters, just turn it on and go. Come home, wash it, oil the chain, have a beer. We like that.

What about charging?

The trails in the hills and mountains around La Molina – a very old ski resort and MTB haven in northern Spain – run riot through forests, hundreds of years old grazing land littered with cows and horses living their best lives.

It has endless kilometres of remote, empty tracks ranging from farm dirt roads, some of which are ancient roads across the mountains, single tracks through the trees and basically goat tracks, ducking under trees, dodging boggy stream crossings and exposed tree roots kicked at by cows.

Nothing was too challenging to ride, for us at least, and we saw a handful of walkers and MTB riders over around eight hours in total riding. We bothered no animals and upset no fellow trail users.

The reality is anyone wanting to do trail ride like this on a Varg at the moment will need to plan a riding loop back to base/home, or have to make a plan some other way if you want to go from A to B.

They are working on finding a solution, they tell us, but it’s not there yet. A charger lead or adaptor you could carry in a backpack and plug in at a coffee shop or charge point would be a real bonus but, on this evidence, not essential unless you ride full gas all the time.

It is a changing world when somewhere so relatively remote and rural, still has places to plug an EV in and we saw them in villages and at a ski lift restaurant on our route but for now you can’t use them.

Enduro21 Verdict

The reality of us spending time on the Varg EX for these two days was to realise the value in being able to ride where you can’t on a gas bike. It matters more in 2025 and this surely was a great ride which could no way have happened on an ICE dirt bike.

We also appreciated being able to talk to each other, something we hadn’t really twigged on other Varg rides. But it really stood out on this trail ride and the truth is we all talked a lot. Too much to be honest!

We’ve been trail riding on all kinds of bikes from old single cylinder plodders, big adventure bikes, enduro bikes and mountain bikes and the Varg stands out from the crowd as a new way to hit the trails because it has such good enduro skills.

Quality of the components on the Varg is second to none, particularly in terms brakes and suspension, and having the good stuff fitted made it a blast to ride.

Like we said earlier, it is many bikes all in one. It just so happens to be a good trail bike as well.

Photo Credit: Stark Studios