VYRUS 986 M2 STRADA
FULL TEST
P58
ing even though you're braking
so hard, because the Vyrus is
almost oblivious to the weight
transfer this delivers, especially
your own.
And once you do get dialed
in to the reduced braking dis-
tances on offer, your increased
confidence will allow the Vyrus
to carry huge amounts of turn
speed, while still eating up any
bumps encountered on the
angle, either on or off the brakes.
That's why Ascanio has fitted
a wide 3.75-inch forged alu-
minum front wheel to the bike,
rather than a more commonplace
3.50-inch one, in order to try to
increase the contact patch area
for better grip in turns. "I'd fit a
five-inch front wheel if I could get
one!" he declares.
As with previous Vyruses
(Vyri?) I've ridden, this bike is so
confidence inspiring and well
balanced, with seemingly no
sensitivity to any kind of weight
transfer, either under braking into
the turn or accelerating hard out
of it, that there seems no limit
to how hard you can push it in
corners. Well, only one, which
is that this kind of treatment will
quickly wear out as grippy a tire
as the excellent Pirelli Diablo
Supercorsas fitted to the Vyrus.
The extra velocity entering turns
you get from being able to brake
so late gets scrubbed off hard,
putting the front tire under strife—I
ended up racing the Tesi with a
125GP rear tire on the front in lon-
ger races to try to get the tire to
last, so Vyrus owners should be
prepared to have to fit new front
rubber as often as the rear.
You can get hard on the gas
really early while still leaned
over—as soon as you let off the
brakes you should cane the
throttle—and the Vyrus was very
Once you
reprogram your
brain, the Vyrus
will carve canyon
roads with the best
of them (at the
expense of front
tire life).
