Reason For Being

On the road to any future there are always bumps along the way. In the case of electric motorcycles, which many feel will play a huge part in our sport’s future, those bumps are here, and they are building, despite the many positives people see in these new offerings. With the Stark Varg now available to the general public (or at least those that can afford the $13,900 sticker price for the top model) and Honda debuting their CR Electric Proto in the All-Japan Motocross race under Trey Canard, the time is almost here to figure out where exactly these bikes belong in competition. Sanctioning bodies all over the world are grappling with the question of whether or not electrics should be allowed to compete against internal combustion engines (ICE) like 250s and 450s, or if they should compete in a strictly electric division. It’s a situation very similar to what happened when modern four-strokes were first introduced in the mid-1990s and, hindsight being 20/20, everyone got the math wrong.