Photography by Jeff Allen
When Akrapovic wanted to do something special to announce its arrival in the custom exhaust marketplace (read: Harley-Davidson), it did what it’s good at and built something special using the materials it’s known for. Thus, the Morsus is a study intitanium, stainless steel and carbon fiber. Tomaž Capuder of Dreamachine Motorcycles in Slovenia did the heavy lifting, with a lot of help from Akrapovic’s in-house experts.
The stainless steel frame and gas tank are a single unit, complete with rigid swingarm out back. (What’s a swingarm that doesn’t swing called, anyway?) The carbon-fiber tank trim/ seat unit does provide a little “suspension,” though, damped by a Fox air shock. A big Showa fork held in Dreamachine triple-clamps hangs onto the 3.5 x 26-inch carbon-fiber front wheel—the same size as the one out back.
Motive power comes from a 113-inch (1852cc) S&S engine rated at 144 horsepower that not only exhales through a custom Akrapovic titanium system but also inhales through a craftily devised system with a carbon-fiber endcap; the poor air must not know if it’s coming or going. So far, the bike has won shows in Croatia, Barcelona and France—and had its U.S. coming-out this past Sturgis.
Even more interesting than the Morsus, really, is the story of Akrapovic. Though Igor Akrapovic (pronounced a-CROP-o-vitch) only started bending pipes 20 years ago (under the name Scorpion until ’97), his exhausts have found their way onto a large percentage of influential motorcycles, including but not limited to Ben Spies’ R1, Jorge Lorenzo’s M1, Bubba Stewart’s YZ450F, Max Biaggi’s Aprilia—the list goes on. The first championship was with Colin Edwards’ Honda SP-01 in 2000.
Not content to outfit just motorcycles, the Slovenian company has also been producing exhausts for automobiles lately. If you need a system for your Audi R8 or Lamborghini Gallardo, Akrapovic can help you out. And don’t forget scooters. You can hear how they all sound on the Akrapovic iPhone app. Kudos to capitalism.
