A Rare VYRUS 50C32T - A Piece of Art

vyrus 50c3st

In 2010 I had the opportunity to purchase this Vyrus from the mechanic who worked on most of my bikes at the time. I looked at it as a piece of art, the fully machined billet parts make it a masterpiece work of craftsmanship. At the time it never had any fluids put in it, so it was truly virgin and original as it gets for a bike.

The story my mechanic told me was that this model was originally delivered to Tom Cruise with his full size version, but sat in Jay Leno's garage for a few years until Jay's mechanic sold it to my mechanic - that was all a lie I later found out through verifiable sources. I don't know how my mechanic came into possession of the bike, but I bought it, and the story did have something to do with the decision, and probably the price. But it was worth it, it was a fine piece of art that sat in my office for about 10 years.

vyrus 50c 32t top front view

In 2005 Vyrus produced 8 of these bikes for the Italian minimoto racing series, but decided they were too expensive to produce and stopped production. The engine is 50cc (50C3) 2 stroke (2T) and generates 13hp. When I reached out to Vyrus to learn more about the bike I was told "If you ride it you will became [sic] crazy of how fast it goes" - I never did ride it, it was art to me.

The guys at Iconic Motorbikes did not think it should remain a piece of art, you can see a video of their owner and founder taking it for a ride here. In 2019 I had figured it was time for someone else to enjoy it and the guys there bought it and eventually put it up for auction, final sales price was $6,995 - a bit lower than I would have expected.

I regret selling only one other motorcycle I owned my 1975 Ducati 860GT - letting the Vyrus go was probably a bigger mistake, it was a creative inspiration sitting in my office.