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The
new Bimota DB5 looks like the budget
sportbike Ducati should be offering based on their 1000DS 2-valve
aircooled 87hp engine. But with Bimota's high quality components
and lower volume production this hot new sportbike will fetch
a high end superbike price.
Bimota
2005
2
Exciting New 2005 Bikes at
Intermot
International Motorcycle
Show
October 2004: Three years after an Italian court
closed Bimota and declared the company bankrupt the maker of some
of the most beautiful, expensive and desirable bikes in the world
has been revived with new management and new money. At the recent
Intermot show, Europe's biggest motorcycle expo held in Munich,
Germany last month, Bimota unveiled a prototype, a new model and
their current SB8K bike.
The bike
on which the tiny Rimini manufacturer is pinning its hopes is
the DB5, built around the Ducati 1000DS L-twin motor that powers
Ducati's 1000SS sports bike, the Multistrada and the 1000 Monster
The bodywork has been kept to a minimum so you can see the classic
air-cooled motor.
This project
was conceived with the ambition to take Bimota back to its origins:
compactness, lightness and refined mechanical details were the
initial inputs in the execution of a dream completely Made in
Italy. The styling by Sergio Robbiano, enhances the aggressiveness
of the DB5 by leaving most of the mechanical parts in view; it
could be compared to a jewel-studded precious piece of art.
.
It features a trellis frame and a unique tubular trellis swing-arm,
with Ohlins suspension at each end and an underseat exhaust system.
The bodywork has been kept to a minimum so you can see the classic
air-cooled motor with its exposed cam belts and dry clutch doing
their thing.
Also unveiled was the Tesi 2D prototype powered by the 1000DS
twin, but with the famous hub-centre steering system designed
by Bimota engineer Pierluigi Marconi in the late 1980s for his
thesis – hence the name "Tesi". A dream, re-interpreting
Bimota1s traditional characteristics which have left an indelible
mark in the history of the motorcycle, models such as the HB1,
KB2 Laser, DB1 and other designs which have never been forgotten
by enthusiasts all over the world.
The system
– and the minimal chassis on which it pivots – have
been further developed by ex-Bimota technician Rodrigo Ascanio
who now has his own engineering set-up under the name VRM.
The Tesi also has no bodywork to speak of, so you can see the
suspension system at work – see below for a bigger view
of this unique motorcycle
Also shown
was the SB8K which is the current and updated result of Bimota's
previous commitment with the Suzuki TL1000S V-twin motor. It's
painted in Anthony Gobert's colours to commemorate his attack
on the World Superbike championship with the original SB8R. Now
somewhat outdated, though beautiful executed in the Bimota tradition,
the SB8K will have to carry the company until the DB5 becomes
available.
Bimota Tesi
2D -Breathtakingly trick. The only question is why put Ducati's
tamest 2-valve aircooled streetbike motor in an exotic hand built
GP Chassis? This puppy is beggin; for a Testrasretta motor, radiators
mounted in the tail.
Bimota
Factory Website
http://www.Bimota.it
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