Bimota
Motorcycle History
The Bimota marque was born more
by accident than design, though for superbike
enthusiasts the accident was s surprisingly
happy event. Massimo Tamburini owned a heating
business in the town of Rimini, on the Adriatic
coats, an area of Italy which had long been
a centre for both racing and motorcycle manufacture.
As a hobby, Tamburini modified several local
riders' machines to make them not only faster
but also lighter and sharper to handle better.
His efforts were rewarded with success, and
before long his work on one particular bike,
the MV Agusta 600 four, had gained the admiration
of the entire Italian biking fraternity.
It was an event in the summer of 1972 which
was the key to the birth of the Bimota; a routine
test session at the Misano circuit where Tamburini,
his friend Giuseppe Morri and racer Luigi Anelli
were testing a specially framed Honda CB750.
A journalist who was present wrote a feature
about Tamburini's Honda, creating such a wave
of interest that a commercial organisation was
established to meet the consequent influx of
orders. The company took its name from the three
partners who set it up - Bianchi, Morri and
Tamburini.
The new venture began trading on 1st January
1973. In addition to the Honda, Tamburini had
just completed a pure racing machine powered
by a Yamaha TR2 2-stroke engine. This too was
an instant success, and in 1975 Johnny Cecotto
won the 350cc World Championship on a Bimota-framed
TZ Yamaha.
The first real Bimota superbike was the Suzuki
GS750-engined SB2 (the SB1 was a racer) which
made its debut at the Bologna Show in January
1977. The next development in the evolution
of the Bimota street bike came at the 1977 Milan
Show in the shape of KB1, housing either a Kawasaki
903 or 1015cc double overhead camshaft 4 cylinder
motor.
The publicity and resultant sales success led
to yet more mouthwatering superbikes and soon
Honda wanted a piece of the action as well,
and later Yamaha - all with official support
from the respective companies. During this period,
Bimota introduced several innovations for production
roadsters, including variable steering geometry,
the space frame and a standard of workmanship
previously unseen.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s the Company
boomed. Then came the crunch, at the 1983 Milan
Show Bimota was foolish enough to display a
prototype of a totally new bike - the futuristic
Tesi - which it didn't have ready for sale.
The result was no sales and bankruptcy. The
Company was saved only by government support
and the first ever Ducati powered product, the
1985 DB1. The success of this one motorcycle
ensured a comeback wich continues in the late
1990s with Ducati and Yamaha engines, plus Bimota's
own water-cooled 500cc 2-stroke street bike.
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