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Powered by the [[Ducati 900SS]] [[motor]] from the early 1990s, the '''Bimota DB2''' has swoopy, all-enclosing bodywork that gives this bike a rakish, ready-for-action style.Because of that [[Ducati]] lump, it isn't the fastest thing on the planet, but it also boasts a beautifully engineered chassis, with eye-popping Brembo brakes and top quality Ohlins suspension to make up ground on the corners. The sound from the twin underseat exhausts is another good reason to check out a DB2 if you ever see one.Collectors with deep pockets will want to keep a lookout for the SR version.There wasn't a moment to waste. Misano racetrack shimmered, almost deserted, in the late-afternoon sunshine. The little Bimota sat waiting in the shadow of a pit-lane garage as I hurriedly signed the circuit's indemnity form, pulled my helmet and gloves back on, then set off to complete my test of the DB2 with a brief blast round the tight little track. | Powered by the [[Ducati 900SS]] [[motor]] from the early 1990s, the '''Bimota DB2''' has swoopy, all-enclosing bodywork that gives this bike a rakish, ready-for-action style.Because of that [[Ducati]] lump, it isn't the fastest thing on the planet, but it also boasts a beautifully engineered chassis, with eye-popping Brembo brakes and top quality Ohlins suspension to make up ground on the corners. The sound from the twin underseat exhausts is another good reason to check out a DB2 if you ever see one.Collectors with deep pockets will want to keep a lookout for the SR version.There wasn't a moment to waste. Misano racetrack shimmered, almost deserted, in the late-afternoon sunshine. The little Bimota sat waiting in the shadow of a pit-lane garage as I hurriedly signed the circuit's indemnity form, pulled my helmet and gloves back on, then set off to complete my test of the DB2 with a brief blast round the tight little track. | ||
After a day in the saddle I was used to the Bimota's hunched-forward riding position, the beat of its V-twin engine, its taut and incredibly light feel.. But it was still strange to accelerate out of the pit-lane, flick through the first couple of bends, then bank left and change up through the gearbox as the long curve unwound - and suddenly to | After a day in the saddle I was used to the Bimota's hunched-forward riding position, the beat of its V-twin engine, its taut and incredibly light feel.. But it was still strange to accelerate out of the pit-lane, flick through the first couple of bends, then bank left and change up through the gearbox as the long curve unwound - and suddenly to realize that I'd barely been conscious of riding the bike, so precisely had the DB2 obeyed every command.I shouldn't have been surprised, because instant response is the trademark of the DB2. | ||
Few bikes have the style or the speed of this Ducati 900SS-engined sportster. Fewer still come close to matching the wired-to-your-nervous-system feel of a torquey V-twin weighing just 370lb.This isn't the first conventionally suspended Bimota with a Ducati engine, of course. Its predecessor, the DB1, is quite some act to follow. Launched in 1986, when the Rimini firm was facing financial disaster, Federico Martini's masterpiece hid an aircooled 750cc V-twin motor behind all-enveloping bodywork. It was uncomfortable and not particularly fast, but it was beautiful and sold so well that it put Bimota on the road to recovery.And now, with the company on a sounder financial footing but with worldwide recession putting their exotic specials out of the reach of more riders than ever, enter the second model of the DB series. | Few bikes have the style or the speed of this Ducati 900SS-engined sportster. Fewer still come close to matching the wired-to-your-nervous-system feel of a torquey V-twin weighing just 370lb.This isn't the first conventionally suspended Bimota with a Ducati engine, of course. Its predecessor, the DB1, is quite some act to follow. Launched in 1986, when the Rimini firm was facing financial disaster, Federico Martini's masterpiece hid an aircooled 750cc V-twin motor behind all-enveloping bodywork. It was uncomfortable and not particularly fast, but it was beautiful and sold so well that it put Bimota on the road to recovery.And now, with the company on a sounder financial footing but with worldwide recession putting their exotic specials out of the reach of more riders than ever, enter the second model of the DB series. | ||
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But bright red paint will be an alternative, possibly with a dash of patriotic green, and this too is an exceptionally handsome motorcycle. Unusually it's the rear of the bodywork that is most dramatic, particularly the way in which the swoopy fibreglass tank-seat unit cuts away to reveal twin silencers exiting horizontally either side of the tailpiece.Exhaust system is a 2-into-1-into-2 that snakes up in front of the rear wheel, the twin pipes meeting briefly below the seat and then splitting again almost immediately. Chief engineer Pierluigi Marconi says the design makes no more noise than Ducati's system. It's certainly more original and stylish, although one drawback, as I discovered the hard way, is that it's easy to burn your hand on a hot silencer. | But bright red paint will be an alternative, possibly with a dash of patriotic green, and this too is an exceptionally handsome motorcycle. Unusually it's the rear of the bodywork that is most dramatic, particularly the way in which the swoopy fibreglass tank-seat unit cuts away to reveal twin silencers exiting horizontally either side of the tailpiece.Exhaust system is a 2-into-1-into-2 that snakes up in front of the rear wheel, the twin pipes meeting briefly below the seat and then splitting again almost immediately. Chief engineer Pierluigi Marconi says the design makes no more noise than Ducati's system. It's certainly more original and stylish, although one drawback, as I discovered the hard way, is that it's easy to burn your hand on a hot silencer. | ||
[[Image:Bimota DB2 93 1.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Bimota DB2 93]] | [[Image:Bimota DB2 93 1.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Bimota DB2 93]] | ||
The exhaust runs up past the Ohlins shock, which sits at a 45-degree angle and like the standard SS's Showa uses no linkage system; instead it gains some rising-rate from a dual-rate spring. The DB2 swing-arm pivots on the crankcase, in familiar fashion, although the swinger itself is made of steel instead of aluminium.Dimensions at the rear are unchanged, but at the front the forks are steepened from the 900SS's 25 degrees to just 23.5 degrees, Bimota's most radical roadster geometry yet. This trims trail from 103 to 95mm, and wheelbase is reduced by 40mm to just 1370mm. Weight distribution is evenly spread between front and rear wheels.Forks are 41mm Paiolis that look conventional but, like upside-down units, hold their damping mechanisms in the top part of each leg. Sliders are machined from billet aluminium, allowing a further reduction in unsprung weight. Each leg contains both compression and rebound damping, but adjustment is by just two fork-top screws: left leg for compression, right for rebound.The forks are held in a typical monogrammed Bimota top yoke, complete with choke knob in the centre. Alloy clip-ons are Bimota's own, too, and give a slightly lower, more aggressive riding position than the standard SS crouch. | The exhaust runs up past the Ohlins shock, which sits at a 45-degree angle and like the standard SS's Showa uses no linkage system; instead it gains some [[rising-rate]] from a dual-rate spring. The DB2 swing-arm pivots on the crankcase, in familiar fashion, although the swinger itself is made of steel instead of aluminium.Dimensions at the rear are unchanged, but at the front the forks are steepened from the 900SS's 25 degrees to just 23.5 degrees, Bimota's most radical roadster geometry yet. This trims trail from 103 to 95mm, and wheelbase is reduced by 40mm to just 1370mm. Weight distribution is evenly spread between front and rear wheels.Forks are 41mm Paiolis that look conventional but, like upside-down units, hold their damping mechanisms in the top part of each leg. Sliders are machined from billet aluminium, allowing a further reduction in unsprung weight. Each leg contains both compression and rebound damping, but adjustment is by just two fork-top screws: left leg for compression, right for rebound.The forks are held in a typical monogrammed Bimota top yoke, complete with choke knob in the centre. Alloy clip-ons are Bimota's own, too, and give a slightly lower, more aggressive riding position than the standard SS crouch. | ||
From the thinly-padded pilot's seat the rest of the view is of a low screen, steering damper in front of the headstock, and a mixture of Yamaha switchgear and white-faced Ducati clocks.Hit the button and the engine fires with a raw 900-style blend of exhaust note and rustling from the desmo motor whose black cylinders peek out from inside the fairing. (Like the 900SS, the DB2 will also be available with a half-fairing.) The stock 38mm Mikunis carburet crisply, though the testbike's tickover was erratic. Its motor immediately felt loose and free-revving, juddering in normal Ducati fashion at low engine speeds, then smoothing above 4000rpm.Even after the standard 900, itself famed for agility and midrange performance, the DB2 is outstanding for just those attributes. It's only 33lb lighter than the SS and 18lb less heavy than Ducati's Superlight, but that slight advantage and the tiny horsepower increase give the Bimota an even more generous helping of what makes the standard 900 Dukes so good.Where a first-gear flick of the wrist sends the Superlight's carbon-fibre front mudguard skywards, the shorter, lighter-still Bimota produces a wheelie even more readily. | From the thinly-padded pilot's seat the rest of the view is of a low screen, steering damper in front of the headstock, and a mixture of Yamaha switchgear and white-faced Ducati clocks.Hit the button and the engine fires with a raw 900-style blend of exhaust note and rustling from the desmo motor whose black cylinders peek out from inside the fairing. (Like the 900SS, the DB2 will also be available with a half-fairing.) The stock 38mm Mikunis carburet crisply, though the testbike's tickover was erratic. Its motor immediately felt loose and free-revving, juddering in normal Ducati fashion at low engine speeds, then smoothing above 4000rpm.Even after the standard 900, itself famed for agility and midrange performance, the DB2 is outstanding for just those attributes. It's only 33lb lighter than the SS and 18lb less heavy than Ducati's Superlight, but that slight advantage and the tiny horsepower increase give the Bimota an even more generous helping of what makes the standard 900 Dukes so good.Where a first-gear flick of the wrist sends the Superlight's carbon-fibre front mudguard skywards, the shorter, lighter-still Bimota produces a wheelie even more readily. | ||