Bimota DB2

Some bikes simply look right from any angle and the DB2 is one of them.

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 realise 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. The DB2 won’t be cheap, you can be sure of that. But it will be much less expensive than models such as the Tesi and Furano. It is intended to sell in big numbers, at least by Bimota standards.

The format is simple, and similar to that of the DB1. Take a suitably charismatic two-valve V-twin from Bologna, in this case the air/oilcooled motor from the 900SS. Resist the temptation to meddle with its internals but tune slightly, with airbox mods and a new exhaust system, to give a couple of extra horses and a peak output of 75bhp at 7000rpm.

Bolt the engine into a ladder frame of chrome-molybdenum steel, similar to the standard Ducati trellis but with racier steering geometry. Equip with high-quality suspension parts - innovative Paioli forks, a multi-adjustable rear Ohlins unit - plus top-notch wheels, brakes and tyres. Complete the package with striking bodywork and meticulous detailing.

For my money this bike doesn’t quite match the sensational looks of the DB1. Perhaps there’s a little too much Yamaha in the front end, which uses a headlight obviously sourced from an FZR. I wasn’t keen on the maroon colour-scheme, either, especially the way it clashed with the scarlet frame tubes.

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.

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. Where the 900SS surges thrillingly given a top-gear, 60mph burst of throttle, the DB2 pulls harder still, its exhaust pulse quickening and the hedgerows flashing past ever-faster. Perhaps some of the extra poke was in my imagination - the increase can only be slight. But the Bim does give a mighty boot in the back.

By superbike standards the DB2 is nothing special on out-and-out straight-line performance, sharing the Duke’s near-140mph top speed. Best I saw, with head behind the screen on Misano’s shortish back straight, was an indicated 215km/h that probably equates to a genuine 130mph. But where the Bimota scores is in its midrange drive, its user-friendliness, the way it hauls ass coming out of a corner with six grand or so on the tacho.

Ah, the corners. Given the DB2’s origins and dimensions I’d expected a firmly sprung lightweight with ultra-quick steering, but there’s more too it than that. The suspension certainly has a typically taut Bimota feel that makes for fine control on smooth surfaces, and jarred wrists on urban potholes.

Its steering did not feel dramatically light, though, perhaps partly due to the hydraulic damper. The Bimota went precisely where it was aimed but at slow speeds needed a reasonable amount of handlebar pressure to change direction. A few other bikes could perhaps have been turned more easily still, although I doubt they’d have matched the DB2’s superbly balanced feel, either in mid-bend or when the power was wound on hard at the exit.

In fact the rear Ohlins unit was a shade over-sprung until calmed with a few extra clicks of rebound damping, and both ends’ race-ready suspension gave a harsh ride on the roughest local backroads. In contrast, the stone surface of one steep hairpin bend I rode round repeatedly for photos had been polished so smooth by heavy lorries’ tyres that even the DB2’s fat radials - 17-inch Michelin Hi-Sports, naturally struggled for grip.

But the Bimota came into its own on the sweeping road heading back towards Misano, where its blend of manoeuvrability and flawless stability could really be put to work. Here the racy riding position made sense, even if the narrow mirrors still didn’t. The DB2 thundered repeatedly from 70 to about 110mph and back again, staying smooth until about 7000rpm, surging past traffic as though it didn’t exist. As a real-world sports bike it was magnificent.

And at the racetrack it was predictably superb. No matter how late I left the braking after booming under the bridge across the back straight, the big Brembos always pulled the Bim up in time and with impressive control. Grip and ground-clearance round the next tight left-hander were immense; the sound and the surge of acceleration onto the next short straight totally exhilarating.

I’d happily have circulated till the tank ran dry, but all too soon the chequered flag was being waved to end a memorable ride. Bimota’s latest bike isn’t their fastest ever, or their most significant. But its price will be similar to that of the FZR600-engined Bellaria, currently the cheapest Rimini model at £13,995. And in many ways the DB2’s combination of light weight, easy handling and usable performance makes this the best and most enjoyable Bimota yet.

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