Vyrus from the future
The original Vyrus looked cutting edge but this new version is straight from 2050
Twenty-one years after the first Vyrus appeared, Italian builder Giorgio Cerrato has taken its futuristic looks to the next level and managed to reduce the weight to 130kg fully fuelled. Powered by a 110bhp version of Ducati’s air-cooled Monster 1100 motor, that means the bike’s power-to-weight ratio isn’t far off a 200bhp superbike.
‘It’s so light that it feels slightly weird at first,’ says 30-year-old Giorgio, who raced when he was younger and was a trackday instructor for years. ‘During cornering it steers almost before you realise you want it to turn – you have to reset the way you corner and if you shift your weight just a little, the bike starts to do stuff. It is super responsive, but because of the front end it’s incredibly stable and excellent fun. I rode the bike 500 miles to a Vyrus owners meet and they were genuinely amazed by the lightness.’
The weight savings are achieved by using cutting-edge manufacturing techniques and clever design – Giorgio reckons 45 percent of the bike is changed. ‘The aluminium front frame, carbon airbox, steering clamp, tail unit, tank, carbon monocoque… they’re all replaced. For me, the most interesting part is a hidden frame made of 3D printed carbon fibre that holds the licence plate and it goes all around the tail of the monocoque. It is a super-expensive licence plate holder, but I like it.’
The styling comes from ‘lowpoly’ design, which reduces curved surfaces to a low number of polygons (KTM’S RC8 designers had a similar idea). Giorgio liked it because it looked futuristic. ‘I wanted to work with straight lines and only use curves when I am more experienced at designing bikes. If you learn how to use a straight line you’ll be ready to use a more complex line like a curve. ‘Also, if you think about the custom bike scene a lot of people are doing the same stuff. I like a lot of the bikes, but they are similar, trying to make modern bikes look old. I’m into sci-fi so I wanted to do the exact opposite.’
It was this contrary nature that led him to the Vyrus too: ‘So many custom bikes start with the same old BMW, so I wanted to do the opposite bike – not a cheap or common one. There is something exciting about redesigning a Vyrus – it’s like redesigning a Pagani supercar. I knew a lot of owners would be pissed off because there are only about 80 or 90 of these bikes around, but so be it.’ The first problem of the build was getting a bike. Giorgio spoke to Vyrus, but their only suggestion was to buy a used 984, which was a £20,000 financial hurdle. Giorgio had trained as an architect, but gave that up to start Vtopia Design which built go-faster kits for Ducati Hypermotards and Scramblers, so wasn’t exactly flush. ‘Buying one was tricky for me, but I invested everything I earned selling my Ducati kits. ‘I redesigned the bike and in the beginning Vyrus were suspicious, but Ascanio [Rodrigo – boss of Vyrus] started to like my work and began to help me. The electrical kit that comes with my kit is actually made by Vyrus, and I became the only Italian Vyrus dealer. He told me my work made him remember his work 20 years before.’ Giorgio now sells his modified components as a kit for £16,500. So who buys them? ‘All the buyers are very strange people. The guy who bought number two… well, just think about the craziest person you ever met and double it. The first day we met he arrived in his Lamborghini and said, “I want to see how you drive my car”. I was completely confused. I had to drive his car before we could talk about the bike. Then he said he didn’t want a low beam fitted, only the high. I asked him why many times, but he never told me why. He rides around on it like that now. Very odd.’
‘Think about the craziest person you met and double it’