Vins Duecinquanta: A new 2-stroke quarter-litre chapter

Words by Ajinkya Nair

What do you get when you take five ex-Ferrari F1 employees and one single task of building a two-stroke motorcycle? Well, you get a monstrous 90bhp in an 85 kilo package! The fact that it is a two stroke, and meets current emission norms makes it all the more exciting.

Duecinquanta translates to two-fifty in Italian, which obviously refers to the displacement of this motorcycle. It gets a 249cc V-twin engine which uses fuel-injection to pass the emission laws in Europe. The road going version will put out 80bhp. As an alternative, the engine can also churn out 90bhp if tuned.

Vins have a carbonfibre fixation and the Duecinquanta makes it evident. There is a carbon monocoque chassis design, similar to what is found in Formula 1 cars, all thanks to the expertise of the ex-Ferrari employees. Even the front forks, for that matter, are carbonfibre, and so are the rims. Some other quirks about the Duecinquanta are the horizontally placed rear suspension and the Hossack-style front suspension system. The radiator is placed under the petrol tank which allows for a flow of air directly from the front of the bike for more efficient cooling.

All this state-of-the-art design and tech comes at a price though. The road-going version of the Duecinquanta costs £35,600, while the Competizione variant will cost £44,500 which converts to roughly about Rs 30 lakh and Rs 38 lakh respectively.