Vyrus Alyen 988 2020 — Specifications

When Rimini produces motorcycles in numbered editions of twenty, priced at €90,000 each, one can legitimately wonder what the word "motorcycle" still encompasses. The Vyrus 988 Alyen is not a motorcycle in the conventional sense. It is a statement of intent, almost a technical manifesto, signed by a workshop of a handful of people located a few kilometers from Bimota on the Adriatic coast. Ascanio Rodorigo, the founder of Vyrus, has always looked to the Tesi as a source of formal inspiration, and the 988 does not break with this obsession with the front swingarm. Where Kawasaki pulled Bimota out of the mire by financing the Tesi H2, Vyrus manages on its own, with its own resources and an excessive ambition.

The heart of the beast is the Ducati Superquadro in its most virulent version, this 90-degree L-twin of 1,285 cm3 that we know for powering the 1299 Panigale. Here, bored out to 116 mm for a stroke of 70.8 mm, with a compression ratio of 12.6:1, it delivers 205 horsepower at 10,500 rpm. The power is transmitted through a six-speed gearbox and a chain, with an integrated quickshifter. The announced top speed flirts with 300 km/h, which, on a dry weight of 165 kilos, is far from an empty promise. The carbon fiber exhaust outlets, sculpted like pieces of industrial jewelry, clearly say that this Ducati engine has been housed in a master craftsman's setting, brought up to Euro5 standards without losing an ounce of bite.

The chassis is where Vyrus really plays its part. No conventional frame: two magnesium plates shaped like omegas serve as a supporting structure, the engine itself being integrated as a structural element. The front end abandons the telescopic fork in favor of a swingarm with a steering hub, exactly as on the Bimota Tesi. At the rear, a long aluminum monobrach is controlled by an Öhlins shock absorber via a system of Ergal linkages. This type of mounting is not just there to look pretty in a brochure: it separates braking and steering from suspension constraints, which offers a steering precision that conventional architectures cannot match. On the open road or on a closed circuit, and this motorcycle is clearly not designed for anything else, the difference can be felt physically.

Braking is entrusted to Brembo in what it does best outside of MotoGP. GP4-RR calipers bite into 320 mm discs, available in steel T-drive or carbon-ceramic according to the customer's ambitions. The RCS Corsa Corta master cylinder and clutch command complete this catalog of pure performance. On the handlebars, machined from a massive block of Ergal, no hoses or cables are visible: everything passes inside. This concern for visual purification more closely resembles a luxury watch than a production motorcycle. Rotobox carbon wheels shod with Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP V3 tires in 120/70 at the front and 200/60 at the rear fit into the same logic of absolute consistency between the material, its function and its cost.

Twenty copies. Not one hundred, not fifty: twenty. The price of €90,000 effectively excludes any buyer who does not already collect motorcycles at this level of rarity. Talking about a target audience therefore makes little sense here; the 988 Alyen does not seek to conquer a market, it seeks to exist as an absolute object. The only criticism that could be leveled at it is its 11-liter tank, which will severely limit range at this rate of consumption. But the buyer of an Alyen probably does not program crossings of Lapland. This machine is made to be looked at, touched, and, sometimes, launched on a track with all the violence that 205 horsepower on 165 kilos are capable of generating.