VOL. 54 ISSUE 47 DECEMBER 5, 2017 P51
S
ticking the "racer with lights" label on a
refugee from the racetrack isn't always a
passport to street-legal satisfaction. But
when you've had six long years to figure out how
to go about it, the chances are good that you
might get it right.
That's how long it's taken
Vyrus virtuoso Ascanio Rodorigo
to do just that with the Moto2
racer he first unveiled in January
2011, with the promise that he'd
produce a homologated street
version in due course—and now,
at last, he has.
Rodorigo is the proprietor
of Italian boutique bike builder
Vyrus Divisione Motori, the so-called Clinica Moto
[aka bike clinic] located just a stone's throw from
the Bimota factory on the outskirts of Rimini.
There, for the past 14 years, he and his like-
minded quartet of fellow craftsmen have patiently
created a succession of two-wheeled works of
art represented by the over 150 examples of the
high-priced hub-center Vyrus sportbike they've
constructed there during that period under the
"pura follia tecnologica" banner—and it is indeed a
fact that they represent two-wheeled technology
truly gone mad!
But works of art? Really? Look, if the late Mas-
simo Tamburini was the Michelangelo of Mo-
torcycles, then his 54-year-old disciple Ascanio
Rodorigo is the Picasso of bikes, as confirmed
Like a Bimota Tesi,
only better. The
Vyrus has come
straight from the
racetrack to give
you the ultimate
street riding
experience.
GONE
VIRAL
BY ALAN CATHCART
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEL EDGE
A FAILED MOTO2
RACER HAS
TURNED INTO A
TRUE GEM OF A
ROAD SPORTBIKE.
MEET THE VYRUS
986 M2 STRADA
What a shame
such a beautiful
(and expensive)
bike must be
delivered with
the same dash
and switches as
a standard Honda
CBR600RR
that costs less
than a third
as much.
