Bimota
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Posted by Gus Leous in Journal section |
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Bimota are the makers of the finest sports motorcycles in the world. The semi-bespoke Italian motorcycle company produce only 1,200 motorcycles per year, each one carefully hand assembled by a single technician.
The Bimota motorcycle story begins in 1973 in Rimini, Italy , when 3 Italians decided that they could improve the handling of the first big 4 cylinder bikes coming from the Japanese manufacturers. These men used the first 2 letters from each of their names, Bianchi, Morri and Tamburini, to create the name BI-MO-TA, a portmanteau which also resembles the 'moto' part of 'motorcycle'.
The first bike from Bimota was built around a Honda CB750 Four, named the HB1 (H for Honda, B for Bimota, 1 meaning the first model with a Honda engine). This model gained Bimota immediate recognition as the best handling bike yet built. Clever engineering solutions, attention to weight and a no compromise attitude to handling precision are the qualities that made Bimota the only name to buy if you want the ultimate in performance.
Bimota now employ around 60 dedicated craftsman, each a specialist at their particular trade.
Every bike to leave the Italian factory has been hand built through virtually every stage of it’s construction. For example, the frame rails are hand machined accurately before they are hand welded. Next is the final machining, followed by an accuracy check ensuring the everything is perfect. And this is only one part of the bike! Every part of every Bimota receive the same attention to detail, which is why they are the best.
The natural place to make use of all this extra performance that Bimota have engineered into their bikes is the race track. Bimota took on the big Japanese factories and won. In fact, Bimota has won 44 grand prix, and placed in another 95. This won Bimota the World 350 grand prix championship in 1980. Bimota also won the world TT-F1 championship in 1987 (the next year, this was renamed the world superbike championship) with the YB4 ridden by Virginio Ferrari.
The year 2000 marks Bimota’s return to world championship racing, with the Bimota SB8R entered in the superbike championship. The race team is being managed by Virginio Ferrari, with Australian Anthony Gobert as rider.
In 2005 in Milan Motorbike Exposition, Bimota launched a new naked motorbike derived from the DB5Mille: the new DB6 Delirio.
Today they make very expensive and exclusives bikes, as they develop cutting-edge chassis and add very high-end suspension and other components to push handling and performance levels. In present, they build four models: DB5 Mille, SBK8 Gobert, SBK8 Santa Monica and Tesi 2D, which uses hub center steering. Bimota model names reflect the origin of the engines they begin with; Yamaha- and Ducati- engined creations began with Y and D respectively. Thus the DB5 and SB8K are the 5th Ducati-engined and 8th Suzuki-engined models.
Article first publist by Gus Leus in 2003-07-02
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