The Vyrus 986 M2 has to be one of the most gorgeous motorcycles we’ve ever seen grace our pages here at Asphalt & Rubber. It’s edgy and doesn’t conform to many of the elements we’d expect from a motorcycle design, and best of all Vyrus intends to race the hub-center steering bike (well maybe the fact you can buy one/build your own is the best thing of all).
With the Moto2 World Championship perhaps out of reach for the small Italian company, we instead see the Vyrus 986 M2 making an entry in the Spanish CEV Moto2 Championship, a national-level series that uses the same rules as the World Championship. Helping Vyrus enter that series is exhaust manufacturer MIVV, which has some experience in the CEV series, having partnered with FTR in past years.
For those that fell in love with original design of the 600cc Vyrus, you may not like some of the changes that have occurred since the bike’s original unveiling. Most noticeable in this announcement is that the discreetly hidden slash-cut pipe from Zard, which protruded just above the 986 M2′s swingarm, has given-way to a more traditional MIVV system (the cost of sponsorship we imagine).
Still considering that the full-titanium exhaust systems comes packed with two years of R&D on how to squeeze the most power out of the lightly-tuned Honda CBR600RR motor, we’ll have to let function give way to form on this situation.
More contentious though is the revised front-end of the motorcycle, which sees an extra brace added to the hub-center steering structure. We’ll have to get word from Vyrus as to what prompted the chassis design change, but one would imagine that the new braces help rider feedback and steering, considering the new brace seems to go directly into the head tube and clip-ons.
More on that as we get it, but we suspect more information will come out as the Vyrus 986 M2 is scheduled for its first race this weekend, taking part in the Spanish CEV Championship’s race at the Jerez de la Frontera on April 17th.
Source: MIVV
Perhaps not quite as elegant as the original design, but still an incredible machine. I wish them the best of luck in the CEV in the hope that they will eventually make an appearance in Moto2.
I agree with the above, the brace makes it a bit more clogged, and I’m a bit disappointed about the lack of Zard exhausts. When I First saw them I thought those were the most elegant and beautiful exhausts I had ever seen.
But that those drawbacks are still nothing compared to the overall beauty of the machine, hope it has a lot of track success.
agree, still brilliant.
Is this finished? e.g. front fender will make it look even better.
Vyrus’ use of a round fender (that was used on the Tesi 2D) looks much better than what Bimota did to the Tesi 3D. The round fender and aluminum swing arm contrast very well with the rest of the intake and upper sub frame.
Moto2 will be even more entertaining to watch than last year now that design is being pushed. The GP and Moto2 classes have been fairly “conventional” relatively speaking for a prototype class.
The “brace” is the quivalent of an upright in automotive parlance. Looked at in engineering terms wiht an upright it is a superior design. Without it, loads from braking are fed into a small kingpin (within the center hub) which is an incredible amount of stress for a very small part. I prefer not only the engineering of the revised design but the esthetics as well.
The tank still looks like it has the potential to crush your nuts under brakes.
Works for me, now fit it with a GSXR750, price it UNDER $10k usd and I’ll consider it.
fit it with the R1 cross plane motor & those rims and I’ll buy it for $18-19k USD (non carbon model)
Would you like a golden toilet with that pipe dream Keith?
interesting… they looks like they switched the front end design entirely… this looks like a radd (parker) front end as opposed to the hub steer (bimota) system.
I remember radd was working on a gsxr front end switch a few years ago, wonder if it’s made it into production – if so, keith might be able to get his pipe dream if he starts with a cheap enough gixxer…
With the new upright, rather than just being there for bracing, hasn’t the front suspension changed entirely to be a Tony Foale-type of arrangement instead of a Difazio-type of setup? Sort of what you see on some BMW’s?
http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2008/10/22/bmw-d1200r-from-concept-to-finished-motorcycle/
I can’t tell from the photos if the front wheel is being steered via the upright or not. But given its placement, I would have to assume that it is.
A bit disappointing on the front suspension, but those tail pipes are absolutely horrid compared to the Zard design.
I’m glad I bought a lotto ticket today. Now I just need to win…
Many Vyrus owners race their Ducati-powered bikes, so it will be good to learn more about the Tesi design when applied to a wider motor like the i-4.
aaron – Parker’s RADD has been further developed. Not sure if your reference of a ‘few years ago’ is in reference to that latest iteration. If its not, here is a little write-up on it (looks great)…
http://ridethetorquecurve.blogspot.com/2010/04/alturnative-tuesday_20.html
Is there any way to follow that Spanish series? I’d like to see video and/or results to follow how this design fares.
Looking at the pics I don’t think that vyrus have changed the fundamental design and this is still a difazio based sytem as you can see the brake torque arms are still in place (blue rods). The brake forces will still travel through the kingpin.
I believe that the new upright is just that and is only connected to the handlebars and will have a sissor type linkage at the top which you can just see in the front picture.
I guess this is their replacement for their original hydraulic system, maybe it didn’t work to well?
Why do these guys and Benelli use that ridiculous tank shape? Under hard braking, I can imagine that lump would make the rider vomit in his helmet OR like monkeyfumi said “The tank still looks like it has the potential to crush your nuts under brakes”. Either way, it’s terrible.