Graham Jarvis tames Sea to Sky on electric JARV-E
Graham Jarvis has become the first rider to complete Sea to Sky on an electric motorcycle. The six-time winner of the Turkish hard enduro rode his JARV-E from the Mediterranean shore at Kemer to the summit of Mount Tahtalı, the ancient Olympos, and finished 11th overall in round seven of the 2026 FIM Hard Enduro World Championship.
It is the third time this year that Jarvis has taken the JARV-E to the finish of one of the sport’s hardest races. In June he finished 10th at the Erzbergrodeo, one of only 15 finishers from around 500 starters. In early August he finished 20th in the Gold class at Red Bull Romaniacs, the first competitor to complete the Romanian rally on an electric motorcycle. Three finishes in three of hard enduro’s toughest events show that an electric machine can now go the full distance against combustion bikes in conditions that break many of them.
From the sea to 2,365 metres
Sea to Sky ran from 8 to 10 October in three parts: a Beach Race on the stones of Kindil Beach, a Forest Race on the shepherd and forestry tracks around the village of Ovacık, and the Mountain Race. That last day takes the field about 64 kilometres from sea level to the 2,365-metre summit of Tahtalı, almost all of it uphill, through 16 checkpoints. Heat, rock, steep restarts and hours in the saddle punish both rider and machine.
Jarvis placed sixth in the Forest Race. On the mountain he reached the summit in roughly four hours and 46 minutes. He was first classified 12th overall and moved up to 11th after Teodor Kabakchiev was disqualified for outside assistance, a decision Kabakchiev disputes.
The win went to Manuel Lettenbichler, who started 15th after a penalty and came through the field to take his third straight Sea to Sky title. Mario Roman finished second and James Moore third. Lettenbichler leads the championship going into the final round, the Hixpania Hard Enduro in Spain from 23 to 25 October.
The JARV-E
Jarvis developed the JARV-E with Austrian chassis specialist David Freidinger, and the bike is built in Austria. It produces up to 50 kW from a 5.6 kWh battery and weighs 95 kg. Its makers describe it as the first electric motorcycle built around true hard enduro and trial-enduro geometry. The claimed maximum run time is up to five hours in the most economical Super Eco mode.
Those numbers put the Mountain Race into perspective. Jarvis’s time of about four hours and 46 minutes sits close to that claimed maximum, on a course that climbs for most of its length. Energy management, not only riding skill, was part of the job.
The JARV-E went on pre-order in Europe at the start of 2026, with 100 units planned and production and certification for the US market under way.
Another electric comeback in Kemer
Jarvis was not the only rider climbing Tahtalı on electric power. Further down the field of 329 riders, Svetlana Baranova raced an electric motorcycle in competition for the first time. It was also her comeback race after a Latarjet shoulder operation, a missed season and a rehabilitation that, by her own account, was not yet complete.
Baranova, known online as Moto Barbie 115 on Instagram, comes from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in Russia’s Far East. She started out as an action-sports photographer before switching to the saddle. She became Russian enduro champion in 2017 and in 2024 took bronze in the women’s category at a hard enduro world championship round in Türkiye.
Her results improved as the races grew harder:
| Race | Position | Time | Checkpoints |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beach (qualification) | 283rd | 6:23 | – |
| Forest | 241st | 4:48:02 | 10 of 10 |
| Mountain | 193rd | 6:18:50 | 9 of 16 |
In the forest she rode to a plan: a calm opening pace, no risks, and the queues at bottlenecks used as rest stops. That approach saved both her own strength and the bike’s energy for the technical second half. “I caught myself realising that for the first time I rode a race and just loved it,” she wrote afterwards. On the mountain she finished inside the seven-hour limit, more than two vertical kilometres above the beach where she started.
What the result says
Sea to Sky asks more of a machine in one race than any other round of the championship: sand and stones at sea level, hours of technical forest, and a climb of more than 2,300 metres. The mountain also works against combustion engines, which lose power as the air thins. An electric motor does not depend on oxygen, so the altitude takes nothing from its output.
Range on long events and charging between race days remain open questions for electric hard enduro. But after the Erzbergrodeo in June and Red Bull Romaniacs in August, the JARV-E has now reached the finish of three of the sport’s most demanding races in the hands of a top rider.
Source: Original text by Thomas Pfister – Summarized and edited by THE PACK
Photos: © Alkım Saraç | © Murat Tekin | © Doruk Mercan | © Thomas Pfister | © Türker Güngör
