A customer walked into the shop this week with a worn-out KTM 250, a Haliburton cottage, a Saturday at Gopher Dunes booked for August, and a clear question: which electric replaces it.

That question now has five serious answers in Canada. Two come from Sur-Ron. Two come from Talaria. One is a Spanish-built road-legal enduro that just got its Canadian approvals. The decision is not which is fastest. The decision is which one matches how you actually ride and where you can legally ride it in Ontario.

This is a buyer's guide built around that, with specs verified from Canadian retailers in June 2026.

The five bikes, at a glance

Pricing excludes freight, PDI, and provincial tax. Stark is the outlier on every axis except one: it's the only bike here you can legally ride to the trailhead.

Talaria X3 Pro: the entry without the regret

The X3 Pro replaced the older Talaria Sting R as Talaria's gateway bike. It does the job. 6.5 kW peak from a 2.5 kW nominal motor, a 60V 40Ah pack stretched along the frame for a low centre of gravity, and a curb weight of 57 kg that lands closer to a mid-sized enduro mountain bike than a moto. Twenty-one-inch front, seventeen-inch rear, adjustable factory forks and rear shock, RFID ignition, and regenerative braking.

What it gives up against a Light Bee X is power and the Sur-Ron parts ecosystem. What it gives back is roughly $1,800 in your pocket and a lighter platform that's friendly to a rider who has never thrown a leg over an electric.

Best fit: a returning rider who wants to test the segment without committing to a four-figure premium, or a teenager who has aged out of a pit bike and isn't ready for full power. Pair it with a green-plate ORV registration if you'll ride OFTR trails, or run it private-land only.

Sur-Ron Light Bee X: the classic that still holds up

The Light Bee X is the bike that built this category. Six years in, the spec sheet is still defensible: 10 kW peak, 295 Nm of torque at the rear wheel, a 72V 35Ah battery, forged aluminum frame, and a curb weight of 59 kg that lets a 180-pound rider muscle it through tight singletrack without thinking about it. Top speed is gentler than the Ultra Bee at around 75 km/h, but the chassis is still the benchmark for what a 60-kilo electric is supposed to feel like.

The catch is that it's also the most stolen. Buy a Light Bee X with two Sold Secure Diamond locks, a wired GPS tracker, and a plan to register the VIN with 529 Garage on day one. Our Toronto e-bike theft prevention guide covers the lock stack we recommend.

Best fit: the trail rider who wants the original recipe, the part availability, and the resale floor. Skip if you actually want full-power MX-style send-it acceleration — that's a different bike.

Talaria Sting MX5 Pro: built for the track

The MX5 Pro is what Talaria built when it stopped trying to copy Sur-Ron and started competing on motocross. The motor is rated 13.5 kW peak, the battery jumps to 72V / 40Ah for 2,880 Wh, and the frame stretches out to take a 19-inch front and rear wheel set the same way a small-bore MX bike does. Net weight with the battery is 76 kg, which is heavier than a Light Bee X but lighter than an Ultra Bee.

On a track like Gopher Dunes Round 4 of the Triple Crown on July 5, or the Walton Raceway finale August 16, the MX5 Pro is the bike that actually keeps up with a 125cc gasser. Shimano Deore drivetrain, Bluetooth connectivity through Talaria's app, faster charging than the Ultra Bee from 20 to 80 percent.

Best fit: the rider with a sanctioned-track schedule. If you've already paid for a Motopark Chatsworth membership, this is your bike. It will not be at home on a sidewalk and it isn't trying to be.

Sur-Ron Ultra Bee: the full-power answer

The Ultra Bee is the bike that turned the category from a niche into a product line. The 2026 model carries 24.5 kW peak in Turbo, 21.5 kW in standard mode, and 520 Nm of torque at the wheel. The battery is the biggest on this list at 4.44 kWh, which translates to real all-day range on the trail. Top speed is 95 km/h, curb weight is 88 kg, ground clearance is 318 mm.

Canadian MSRP is $7,999, which makes the Ultra Bee, surprisingly, cheaper than the MX5 Pro at most Canadian dealers right now. That's the spec-per-dollar story: full power, biggest battery, lowest sticker among the full-send class. The trade is mass. Twenty-nine kilograms heavier than a Light Bee X is something you feel on a tight, technical Haliburton single-track.

Best fit: the all-mountain rider who wants one bike to handle 80 kilometres of trail in a single charge, who values water-resistance and a dual-sport chassis over track-day handling, and who'd rather have headroom on power than save weight.

Stark Varg EX: the road-legal premium

The Stark Varg EX is what happens when a Spanish electric-motorcycle company decides off-road performance shouldn't require a trailer. The 2026 EX is approved for road use in Canada. That means a white licence plate, full M-class registration, mandatory insurance, and a real VIN. Peak output is 80 horsepower at the wheel, fully adjustable down to 10 hp through Stark's app, and the 7.2 kWh battery is roughly 20 percent larger than the original Varg.

The Canadian price as of June 2026 is around $19,391 before freight and tax. That's premium-Euro-enduro money — KTM 350 EXC-F territory, Husqvarna FE 350 territory. The Varg EX is competing against the gas enduros that dominate Hardwood, the Madawaska Highlands, and the Ganaraska, not against Sur-Ron and Talaria.

Best fit: the rider who already owns a gas enduro, knows what 80 hp at 121 kg actually feels like, has the budget for a full M-class licence and insurance stack, and wants a single bike that can ride from a Toronto driveway to a Crown-land trailhead without being on a trailer. This is not a beginner's bike.

The Ontario legal stack, briefly

None of the four off-road bikes on this list are legal on public roads, painted bike lanes, cycle tracks, multi-use trails, or sidewalks in their stock configuration. Ontario's pending ERO 026-0422 proposal, which closed for comment June 7, is the regulatory clean-up that will formalize this with a 55-kilogram weight ceiling on Class 1 and a 120-kilogram ceiling on Class 2 pedal-assist bicycles. Both ceilings exclude every bike here except the X3 Pro, and the X3 Pro doesn't have functional pedals, so it's a moot point. The Toronto Police perimeter enforcement that picks up during the FIFA World Cup window through July 19 has already produced fines in the $1,500-plus range for unregistered motor vehicles operating downtown.

For trail riders, the legal path is the same as it has been: ORV registration, a green licence plate (Ontario's plate for limited-speed and off-road vehicles is green with white lettering), a valid G2, G, M2, or M licence depending on the bike's classification, and $200,000 minimum third-party liability insurance through a broker who understands the category. Desjardins, BrokerLink, and Netsurance write this regularly; quotes generally run $300 to $700 per year for off-road-only coverage. Anything quoted above $3,000 means your broker is classifying it as a street motorcycle by accident.

The Stark Varg EX is the exception. As a road-legal enduro, it carries a white motorcycle plate, full M-class insurance, and goes through the same MTO process as any other registered motorcycle. Expect $1,200 to $2,500 a year for a fully-licensed M-class policy depending on your history.

Where to actually ride is a separate question, and we covered the trail network in detail in our Sur-Ron and Talaria Ontario riding guide.

The decision tree

If you've never owned an e-moto, you're under 200 pounds, and you want to try the category without spending five figures: Talaria X3 Pro.

If you want the classic, you ride mostly trail, and you want the deepest aftermarket and parts ecosystem: Sur-Ron Light Bee X.

If you race or train on sanctioned MX tracks and want a chassis built for it: Talaria Sting MX5 Pro.

If you want full power, the biggest battery, and the best dollar-per-kilowatt on this list: Sur-Ron Ultra Bee.

If you already own a gas enduro, you want to ride from your driveway to the trailhead, and you have the budget: Stark Varg EX.

This is, in the shop owner's opinion, the most useful five-bike spread the segment has ever offered. Three years ago the choice was Light Bee X or nothing. Today you can buy precisely the bike that matches your weekend, your weight, and your wallet without compromising any of the three.

If you're not sure yet

E-moto buyers historically over-spec on day one. The pattern is consistent across our customer base: a rider buys an Ultra Bee, realizes after a season that they ride mostly tight trail and would have been happier on a Light Bee X, then trades down. The reverse rarely happens.

Two ways to test before committing. The first is the Buzzify subscription program at $65 per week or $225 per month with maintenance included, which works for any bike in our fleet including Light Bee X and Sting MX5 Pro. The second is a track day at Motopark Chatsworth or MotoValley Madoc, both of which rent both platforms hourly. A morning on each will save you a five-figure mistake.

The honest take: the Ultra Bee gets the headlines, the Stark Varg EX gets the magazine covers, and the Light Bee X still gets sold more than both of them put together. There's a reason for that.

Sources

• 2026 Ultra Bee — Surron Canada
• Sur-Ron Light Bee X — Surron Canada
• Talaria Sting MX5 Pro — Talaria Canada
• Talaria X3 Pro specs — USA Talaria
• Stark Varg EX — Stark Future
• 2026 Stark Varg EX Canadian pricing — GP Bikes
• Ontario Green Licence Plate Program — thinkinsure.ca
• Ontario ERO 026-0422 — Government of Ontario
• Modernizing e-bike rules — Spacing Toronto