An invite to ride the Stark Varg EX for two days in the Pyrenees mountains hit my inbox, and my lungs filled with nervously excited air. You see, I’ve been trying to get into the off-road world, and there’s arguably no off-road bike with more hype around it than the EX. But there was a problem.
Getting an invite is one thing, but going to test this motorcycle is an entirely different story, and it forced me to face the imposter syndrome that sometimes surrounds this job. The fact that the EX wears the “world’s most powerful enduro bike” badge didn’t help my anxiety.
See, I have two decades of riding in my locker, including a bit of motocross and some off-roading. But enduro? My view of enduro had always been folks who grew up riding trials or decent-level motocross and were freaks on two-wheels over any terrain. More recently, however, the riders I hear getting into enduro have experience similar to mine, and that got me thinking, “What if I am the perfect person to test this bike?”.
