Bimota Cranks It Up A Notch
BIMOTA CRANKS IT UP A NOTCH
BIMOTA IS STILL WITHOUT a commercial representative in the U.S., even while existing bikes, dumped on the market en masse by the company that held the paper on them, are sold off at fire-sale prices. But that hasn’t kept Bimota from celebrating 1994 not only with a surprising list of new models, but with the announcement of an additional engine supplier.
The company, which currently builds bikes around engines from Yamaha, Ducati and Gilera-not to mention its own 500cc two-stroke Twin prototype-announced in mid-summer that it soon will unveil its all-new SB6 and SB7, the first Suzuki-powered bikes since the SB5 was introduced in 1984.
The SB6 will be powered by an unmodified GSX-R1100 engine, while the SB7 gets GSX-R750 power. The SB6 will be launched at October’s Milan show wearing carburetors, but an additional version, with electronic fuel injection, also will appear.
Even more interesting, however, is confirmation that the SB7 will appear, probably
sometime soon after the Milan show-in fuel-injected form. The two new SBs will share a single frame design which uses a standard fork arrangement instead of Bimota’s Tesi swingarm front suspension, and they’ll be clad in Bimota’s dramatically styled bodywork which debuted last year on the Tesi ES. Will the SB7 rival the Ducati 916 and Honda’s RC45 in World Superbike racing next
season? Don’t bet against it.
But that ain’t all: Look also for the DB2EI, a fuel-injected version of the Ducati 900SSpowered DB2, the bike that currently is Bimota’s best-selling model; and look for an allnew version of the Yamaha FZR600-powered YB7 Bellaria, with sportier bodywork and harder-edged styling than the old two-seat version.
Bimota plans to hold the launch of the street-legal version of its Tesi 500, powered by the company’s own twostroke V-Twin, until 1994’s IFMA show in Cologne. It probably will launch the street-legal version of its very effective GB1, powered by a 750cc Gilera Single, at about the same time. This is a particularly interesting machine, as in late July this machine, ridden by works pilot Gianluca Galasso, won the fourth round of the Italian Supermono title chase by a whopping 20 seconds over the next bike home-the works Ducati Supermono.
Alan Cathcart
