Latest evolution of Moriwaki MD600 Moto2 bike

Moriwaki unveiled the latest evolution of its MD600 prototype Moto2 competitor at the Indianapolis MotoGP round.

Two bikes were present – one is ‘Version 5’, which incorporates various changes over the four previous incarnations for the obvious reason of extract more performance, and Version 7, which is very similar with only minor performance tweaks but was built to be closer to the production model in terms of construction.

Moriwaki has been using a race-kitted CBR600RR engine since it began development in 2008 – Moto2 rules will dictate absolutely no internal engine changes to the engines, so changing anything would have been pointless.

Honda will be the control engine supplier, meaning every team will be running identical production CBR600RR engines anyway.

The MD600 is, externally at least, conventional in its build.

An alloy beam frame and underbraced swingarm are similar to those you might see on a production bike (albeit lighter and stronger), and the bodywork isn’t dissimilar to current machinery – the fairing has a Desmosedici look to it, and the seat isn’t unlike the Fireblade.

KYB supplies suspension, wheels are from Marchesini and brakes are Nissin.

More details will be released on the bike when production spec is finalised later this year – Moriwaki says the development of a further, final specification machine is happening now.