Bimota at the Shop

I'd love to have a go on a Bimota Tesi. Not much chance of that happening though as I've never even laid eyes on one. Just curious about how the hub centre steering front end would feel.
 
beauchemin said:
They are all gorgeous, even the Mantra, but my personal favourite is the SB2.
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Yeah, the SB2 was just totally bonkers. More so when compared against the totally bland UJM engine donor bike. Bimota at their best.

Unfortunately the mainstream bikes have become so good now that Bimota really don't have anything to offer other than snob value while they're expensive, or some perceived 'exclusivity'. They haven't even looked nice for a good decade or two to my eye at least. I'd bet the BMW S1000RR would be a better bike in every respect than the Bimota equivalent. Not so back in the day of the SB2 etc, they could not have been more different!

The Tesi is something a bit different just due to the lack of anything similar. I'd love a go on one too and thought about casting around for a Tesi1D a while back but the Tesi was the one 90's Bimota which was still quite expensive. It also takes the servicing difficulties to a new level. Belt change requires removal of right hand frame plate - full removal of front and rear swingarms and everything. Next-level nightmare. :D
 
I saw a post on Adventure Rider from a bloke in Sydney who owned one and apparently rode it a lot on The Old Rd, I tried making a time when I could see it but that never happened.
www.advrider.com

One year with the Bimota Tesi 3D

Amen to that. John stood head and shoulders above his peers. The Britten was not a HCS of course; it used a double wish boned front suspension with a...
www.advrider.com www.advrider.com
 
Bimota almost made a Guzzi powered Tesi. I can't remember why it didn't happen but it was the early 90's and they wanted to use a Daytona motor. Tried to find a photo but as it never happened all I found was this ...... Oberdan Bezzi has quite an imagination.

Jim

Bimota%20MGB%201%20Powered%20MotoGuzzi.jpg
 
helicopterjim said:
Bimota almost made a Guzzi powered Tesi. I can't remember why it didn't happen but it was the early 90's and they wanted to use a Daytona motor. Tried to find a photo but as it never happened all I found was this ...... Oberdan Bezzi has quite an imagination.

Jim

Bimota%20MGB%201%20Powered%20MotoGuzzi.jpg
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Guzzi were in talks to supply motors to Bimota but they were to be chain drive, now that I could be interested in.
The Daytona motor was the coolest .
 
There's two of those in ChCh. I've done work for both owners on their BMW Single powered Bimota racebikes.
One of the two strokes has had the update kit and is rideable - just. the other is bog stock as he thinks it may be worth more in the long run...
In the flesh they're a lovely piece of work. Light and compact.

I was asked if I wanted to have a try at sorting the kitted one. Backed away slowly....
 
GregT said:
There's two of those in ChCh. I've done work for both owners on their BMW Single powered Bimota racebikes.
One of the two strokes has had the update kit and is rideable - just. the other is bog stock as he thinks it may be worth more in the long run...
In the flesh they're a lovely piece of work. Light and compact.

I was asked if I wanted to have a try at sorting the kitted one. Backed away slowly....
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You and psg are on the money, remember well the era, the ride reports, the excitement ( my one and only ride for 30 years was a Suk GT750 Kettle/Water Bottle stroker ), rode a H2, sorted a Maco radial head 400, not only into the atmosphere two stroke oil, into the blood stream.... always thought the 4 strokes were ladies/shopping bikes, at risk of running the ire of the ladies... though i knew of formidable lady riders, near and far from here. Love to have seen the Bimota stroker in person, of course Zane Laverda had the same reputation to overcome..... j
 
The VDue was a classic case of over-reach. Their ambition outweighed their ability as someone once masterfully put it. But imagine if they had made it work? Would have been a cracker!!
The company did fold for a while (in typical Italian fashion) and a core of people must have continued on and built the 'Vyrus' (so non-2020's naming) which somehow or other morphed into the Tesi 2D when the company popped up again. That seemed to lead to a pretty decent revival of the brand for some years.
A year or three back the brand was acquired by Kawasaki and seems to be morphing into their luxury sub-brand like Lexus, Infinity, Genesis et al. Perhaps better than being out of business again, perhaps not.
 
Been Reading this thread with interest, i had a YB10 Dieci years ago ,beautiful looking bike IMO but as has been stated above and like most other Bims an absolute nightmare to work on, eg. having to drop the engine to access the spark plugs etc...also suspension was almost non existent it was like riding an ironing board!

bimbo 013.jpg
 
Both my bikes had way to hard suspension standard, even for my much higher weight than most. It must be unbearable if your even lighter. Changing to correct springs is cheap and easy and makes riding more comfortable and safe. Less loss of traction. Annoying if you spent megabuck ready.
 
Vince said:
Both my bikes had way to hard suspension standard, even for my much higher weight than most. It must be unbearable if your even lighter. Changing to correct springs is cheap and easy and makes riding more comfortable and safe. Less loss of traction. Annoying if you spent megabuck ready.
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I found the same with my Ducati MHR. I thought most of the discomfort to my arse came from the thin seat padding. But after I'd replaced the rear shocks with something modern and put gold valves in the front, the seat got a lot more comfortable.
 
More Bimota ramblings... sorry. :)

philw said:
Been Reading this thread with interest, i had a YB10 Dieci years ago ,beautiful looking bike IMO but as has been stated above and like most other Bims an absolute nightmare to work on, eg. having to drop the engine to access the spark plugs etc...also suspension was almost non existent it was like riding an ironing board!
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Nice bike, congrats! Just to clarify, spark plugs are difficult but can be changed without removing the engine - at least on the YB6 and 8. You don't want a plug socket that sticks too hard onto the plug, as it can't be removed. I used to use a cheap socket with the insert removed, placing and removing the plugs with a magnetic pick once unscrewed. A decent uni joint is surprisingly able to work at nearly 90 degrees and I could spin the inner plugs in and tighten them ok. More recently I splashed out and got a Koken 3/8" drive plug socket which has a perfect spring clip on the hex part which is just enough to hold the plug but easy enough to get off. The 3/8" is a bit easier to work with in confined spaces than my old 1/2" stuff too.

The most annoying YB thing I found was when I bought the YB6 it had been disused for some time and the carbs were gummed up and leaky. Due to the factory placement of the band clamps with the allen heads facing outwards, it really was physically impossible to reach the outer ones to loosen them as the frame rail was right there so the engine had to come out. When I put it together again I just put the outer clamps facing inwards and could then reach those with a ball end driver and long 1/4" socket extension from the other side. So carbs are now somewhat easy to remove.

But yeah, Bims are a challenge! :D

Suspension wise, the 6 had a totally knackered original shock (zero damping) but with Thomas' help I was able to get an Ohlins made up for it (it was in Sweden which helped) so I never rode it with the original. The M1R conventional forks were actually fine on that, so I was always quite happy with the suspension on that one (smooth euro roads though). The YB8 had a WP rear shock and the early Marzo USD forks of the Tuatara and was terrible! It was tolerable when it was still in Europe with the nice roads, but once in Oz it was horrible. Suspension Smith in Canberra re-sprung and damped the rear shock, and threw away the entire internals of the forks and fitted GSXR cartridges, resprung and modified for compression one side and rebound the other. He also fiddled to increase the travel a bit, front and rear. Is great now, but agree as received it was horrible (but I suspect it had been fiddled by the original owner also).

Fun and games...
 
And then Mr Ta made this masterpiece, awesome to work on, it looks like you won’t be able
To do what you want but the spanners sockets and key clear by a few mm, my favourite of all
My bikes
 

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Laverda content - Dad's DB1 with Harold's 650 Formula somewhere near Black Spur or so:
SB1997-01-013.jpg
The scruffy but awesome YB6 with Christiane's Mantra Mk2:
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After the demise of the YB6 came the YB8, here on the way back to Austria after purchase:
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YB and DB on tour somewhere in Austria:
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Good times!
 
Cosi said:
And then Mr Ta made this masterpiece, awesome to work on, it looks like you won’t be able
To do what you want but the spanners sockets and key clear by a few mm, my favourite of all
My bikes
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Awesome! That was Tambo at the peak of his genius, milestone bike.
Tambo left Bimota in 83 and was succeeded by Frederico Martini who designed the YB4/6/8 along with the DB1 and other mid-late 80's models. He was succeeded by Pier Luigi Marconi who did the Tesi and basically all the 90's stuff.

Don't know who their designer is more recently, possibly a blind person they were forced to hire for equal opportunity reasons...
 
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