More on the VΨRUS 986 M2

In this video (in Italian) VΨRUS motorcycle's Ascanio Rodorigo, talks about the new VΨRUS 986 M2 project. He says that 2011 will be a development year for the race bike project therefore we cannot expect to see VΨRUS compete in Moto 2 until the 2012 season. However, private enthusiasts will be able to purchase track versions of the bike this year and street versions by September.

Pricing for the street version should be €25,000 and €55,000 for the track model. The track version will weigh in at 135kg with around 136CV peak power (nice square figures).

VΨRUS Moto 2 Race Bike

News at this month's Verona Bike Expo was that VΨRUS motorcycles has produced a Moto 2 race bike for this year's Moto 2 race series.

For those who don't know who VΨRUS is, it is a boutique motorcycle manufacturer out of the coastal Italian town of Rimini who produce hand-built hub-center steered motorcycles. Until now, all of their models used either Ducati 4-valve superbike or Ducati 2-valve supersport engines. The company was born out of the ashes of the collapse of the Bimota factory (one of the many collapses). Design plans and technical staff were available at the time to advance one of Bimota's most ambitious projects, a hub-center steered superbike.

Now Bimota too has risen from the ashes and is also producing a hub-center steered, Ducati engined superbike. This leaves VΨRUS in a difficult situation. There are now two boutique companies based in Rimini who both produce a Ducati-engined hub-center steered superbike, based on the same original design.

Producing a Moto 2 race bike using their hub-center steered designs is a logical and extremely ambitious move for VΨRUS. It proves that they believe in their hub-center steered concept and are willing to put their ideas to the ultimate test. All Moto 2 race bikes must utilize the same Honda 600cc engines and engine management systems. Thus chassis, setup, aerodynamics, tires and rider ability are the deciding factors in who wins or looses. This makes Moto 2 the perfect format for advanced and alternative chassis designs. It is interesting, and somewhat disappointing, that no one else competing in Moto 2 has taken the opportunity to think out of the box. More kudos to VΨRUS for being the first.

To top it all off, VΨRUS has now announced plans to put a street-legal version of this bike into production by September this year! It should be amazing!

With the introduction of MV Agusta's F3 last November, Triumph's already successful 675cc Daytona, and now the VΨRUS 600 - middle-weight sports bikes are where all the most exciting developments are occurring right now. This is logical given the weight and handling advantage a middle-weight has over a full-sized 1000cc plus superbike. The only advantage a superbike has is in horsepower, but this is hardly an advantage on normal roads when you are comparing say 130hp against 190hp. With 130hp you are drinking from the garden hose on full whereas with 190hp you are drinking from a fire hose. Either way you can't drink all that water, but the fire hose will make you a lot more than just wet.

Thanks to MotoBlog.it for allowing the use of this photo.

Other Desirable Bikes (part 2)

Continuing on the theme of other superlight, exotic sportsbikes.

The VΨRUS

Have you ever seen one of these?...

If you think it is a Bimota Tesi 3D then you'd be wrong. The Bimota is exotic enough but, at 168kg dry, it doesn't make it in terms of being light weight in my opinion. No, if you want a really exotic alternative front-end motorcycle then check out the VΨRUS 984 2V.

The VΨRUS shares more than just a passing resemblance to the Bimota Tesi. The small company that builds the VΨRUS is based in Rimini, Italy, just down the road from Bimota. Ascanio Rodorigo heads the company and cut his teeth working for Bimota in the 1980's. At some time, during the many boom & bust cycles of Bimota, Ascanio gained the rights to build bikes based on the Tesi's hub-center steering design.

Hub-center steering does away with conventional telescopic forks. Instead there is a pivoting arm at the front (much like a single-sided rear swingarm) which is supported by a conventional shock-absorber. The wheel steers left and right via a steering pin located inside the hub of the front wheel. This is much like the way a car front wheel is steered. A series of levers connects the handlebars to the steering on the front wheel.



Hub-center steering offers many advantages over telescopic forks. Here are just a few:

• Telescopic forks connect the front and rear wheels via a triangle with one side removed. This is a poor engineering choice. To compensate, sportsbikes use massively stiff front forks mounted to a strong and complex frame. The hub-center design connects front and back in a direct line, the optimal solution.
  
  
• Telescopic forks suffer from 'stiction' as the forks slide against each other. To compensate, sportsbikes use exotic materials and fork-tube diameters are increased. The hub-center design simply pivots up and down on a bearing surface.
  
  
• As telescopic forks move up and down they carry the extra weight of their internal shock absorbers. This compromises the suspension. 'Upside down' forks compensate for this somewhat. The only other solution is to use exotic, lightweight materials to try to reduce the unsuspended mass. In hub-center designs, the shock absorber is fully suspended weight.

All steering, braking and front suspension parameters can be tuned, separately from each other, since this system separates the steering, braking and front suspension functions from each other (think tunable anti-dive braking).

Over the years telescopic fork suspension has evolved to the point where a bad design actually works remarkably well. It was not always the case. Telescopic forks have one other advantage, because they are tilted back (raked) they can absorb the 'rearward' component of the force due to bums in the road.

Ascanio and his team perfected the Tesi design and the super-refined result is the VΨRUS.

Currently there are two models available. The 984 2D and the 985 4D. The main difference is that the 2D uses Ducati's 2-valve, air-cooled, 1000cc V-Twin; the 4D model uses Ducati's 4-valve, water-cooled superbike engine.

I chose the 2D for this article because it is the lightest and simplest of the two. At 150kg it is very light for a 1000cc twin, but just makes the grade overall for the superlight category... well 150kg is a bit outside the range really, but this bike is so exotic that I just had to include it.

Cost is a bit out of the range too. In 2006 the price of a 2D was around $40,000 so expect to pay that and a bit more today (sorry I don't have any recent figures).

I have a lot of respect for Ascanio Rodorigo and the VΨRUS team. Like CR&S, they are a small company with limited resources that have produced an exotic masterpiece using great skill, passion and the drive for perfection above compromise.

By the way, Vyrus will be unveiling some new, even more exotic, models at this year's Milan International Motorcycle show (EICMA). Just one more reason to be there.