While doing a little leisurely reading yesterday, I came across an article in the August Motorcyclist about the Vyrus 985 C3 4V, a naked bike with a swingarm front end using hub center steering, a CNC machined frame and powered by a Ducati 999 V Twin. Based on the Bimota Tesi but completely redesigned, the Vyrus has the engineered look of a high tech purpose built motorcycle, unencumbered by plastic bodywork so you can easily see what makes it tick.
I bookmarked the Vyrus site some time ago and hadn't been back for a while and I see this bike is the stablemate to the 984 C3 2V, powered by the 2 valve Ducati. The new 985 is priced at almost $69,000.
Swingarm front ends seem to work very well but add quite a bit of complexity to the old fork we're used to seeing. Does their excellent function outweigh the additional parts count? I have no answer for that and often, even if it did, you have to overcome market resistance to the radical look before you can move enough of them to make it an affordable technical improvement. The Yamaha GTS1000 was a short lived curiosity and at the price of the Vyrus, few will be rolling down the road anytime soon.
Interesting technology, though.
More photos below:
Link: Vyrus
Kickboxer Subaru WRX Powered Motorcycle Concept
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Front swing arm suspensions have been used on the volume production Italjet Formula, Peugeot Speedfight and Aprilia Area 51 motor scooters.
Tom
That 21st century swingarm front end was the GTS’s only saving grace. Everything to the rear of the steering head was ’80s tech. And not very aesthetically pleasing ’80s tech at that.
Remember, once telescopic forks were new and weird, too. Function over form, baby. We just got used to them.
Without a doubt the front swingarm concept is far superior, the down side is cost. If a steering hub could be produced for real money I think you would see more of this concept in production. The one down side might be the weight but I’m sure the engineers could figure it out.
Having ridden many different bikes including the Bimota Tesi SR 904, I can vouch for the benefits of the hub center steering approach: near telepathic response, very little front end dive, excellent braking, very stable, and super sexy. I have never ridden a motorcycle that made me feel more confident than when I was on the Tesi. Price is the main factor that keeps me from owning one again. But I will be the first in line to buy a mass produced, reasonably priced version of the bike.
the new vyrus seems like a comletely new entity to the tesi, I mean fifty more horses and fourty pounds lighter. It seems Vyrus took the center hub center steering and ran with it.
I’ve watched this raced in the thunderbike series in the UK and its very competitive allways top three only let down by its engine occasionally and never the handling
If any of you have riden any swing arm bike, could you tell me how does it compare to the Hosak system BMW is using? (duolever I think they call it). To me it seems that they both are trying to do the same, reduce diving on braking, and de-coupling suspension from steering (some what anyways) I have always heard people complaining about lack of feedback from BMW’s solution, and I am thinking that this may be due precisely to the anti-diving behavior of the suspension. I believe Briten used some anti-diving suspension (Hosak) quite succesfully in racing, so it is probably not so bad in terms of weight and feedback if done correctly and the rider is used to its peculiarities.
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