Db2 Done Right

DB2 Done Right

CALIFORNIA SPECIALS

For Pro Italia, one of the world's most exotic sportbikes was merely good starting point

AS MICHAEL WHITE PEERS ahead through life's essbends, some of the apexes he sees catch his attention and cause him to think. The result is this highly personal Bimota DB2. Oh, yes; it's a custom ride, even if at first glance it looks like a stocker. Start it, though, and ride it, and White's custom touches lose their subtlety. That's because he's transformed a mellow, beautifully finished Italian motorcycle into a very hard-running, exquisitely finished Italian/American motorcycle.

Of the DB2. White says, "First of all,

my wife and I have a small child. So it seems that if there’s ever a time to do this before we get into those large commitmcnts-cars, (more) kids, schools-thc time is now. Secondly, as quickly as bikes are changing, I don’t know how much longer you’ll see things like tubular frames and swingarms. Third, with the noise and emissions regulations we all face, I think that in the near future bikes are going to be a lot different than they are now.”

White, 37, a designer of athletic footwear, has a clear vision of how to design an athletic motorcycle for himself. f irst of all, he says, it has to be a

V-Twin. Second, it has to be exotic. And finally, it has to be visually inter esting, something he can grow into and be satisfied with over the long haul.

mere seemea only one answer: a Bimota DB2, the limited-edition Italian sportbike powered by Ducati's 900SS engine. White says, "Only a small percentage of the bikes you see are Ducatis, but you never see a Bimota. Their exoticness is really intriguing to me, especially when they're so beautifully detailed. When I saw this bike, first in pictures and then in person, I knew this was the bike I had to have."

The DB2 fit his requirements for sev eral reasons, not least of which was its 370-pound claimed dry weightalmost 60 pounds lighter than that of Ducati's highly regarded 916. Additionally, White says, he was attracted by some thing the DB2 didn't have: "I didn't feel I needed the 9 16's four-valve motor. We thought we could build a two-valve that was almost as strong,

with lots of torque and horsepower in the midrange where I like tn ride."

So he bought a DB2, and without ever rolling it off the showroom floor, com missioned Earl Campbell, of Pro Italia, in Glendale (818/249-5707), to customize it for him. Campbell's work began inside the engine. The cylinders were rebored from 92mm to 94mm for a final displace ment of 944cc. Heads and manifolds were flowed and ported, and hot-rod camshafts were added. Lightened, 11.25:1 pistons were tamped into those bored barrels, with Carrillo rods connect ing pistons to a rebalanced crankshaft.

Because he lives near sea level and

rides 7500-foot mountain passes, White wanted the intelligent fuel and timing management provided by electronic fuel injection. So he sent to Italy for the EFI kit Bimota uses on its DB2SR, the fuel-injected, non-U.S. version of the bike he bought. That-a comprehensive package that included electronic con trol unit, injectors, a new wiring loom, a different tank and airbox, and lots of other detail bits-is what fuels the bike now, though tuning the system, through creation of EPROM chips customburned to fit the Bimota's combination of capacity, compression and cams, is giving Campbell fits.

He says ruefully, "The kit came with no documentation, not even a wiring diagram. We had to figure out things as we went along. Even so, I didn't anticipate that it would be this difficult to get the bugs out."

Because of those bugs, no dyno runs have been performed. But Campbell an ticipates 90 to 95 rear-wheel horsepow er when the system is sorted. And he adds, "Because it's so light and its wheelbase is so short, it's definitely going to be an E-ticket kind of ride."

While Campbell and his mechanical minions were building and debugging the engine and fuel injection, White turned his attention to other areas. In stock form, the bike's tubular steel frame and oval-tube swingarm were red and its three-spoke wheels were white. Wanting a more unified look, he and Campbell sent frame and swingarm out to be painted the same purple used in the bike's fairing.

Lightness is part of any exotic bike's nature. Same with White's designer Bimota. It wears a magnesium clutch case and cam covers, and the clutch, belt and sprocket covers all are carbonfiber. But if some lightness is good, more is better, so White specified use of Marvic Penta five-spoke magnesium wheels, also painted purple. This change in wheels, he says, reduced the bike's weight by 10 pounds and made a huge difference in its feel and handling.

He swapped the standard Bimota

clutch and brake master cylinders for those sourced from Ducati’s 916, modifying the location of their remote reservoirs so they would clear the fairing. And he added steel-braided brake lines.

And as a final change, he installed a pair of Bimota’s optional exhaust canisters, which are, ahem, less restrictive than the stock units.

Everything else, White says, is stock: “One of the things I wanted to avoid was wholesale change that would make the bike a lot less Bimota. I wanted to keep it as a Bimota, but try to enhance little areas of it. I didn’t really delve into anything I didn’t think I could improve.”

Translation: Fairing, paint, seating position and suspension all are stockthough one change White wants to make involves adding Bimota’s optional preload adjusters to the bike’s Paioli fork.

But even without those, as the bike sits now, it’s very close to White’s idea of perfection. To sample that perfection, we took the bike for a ride-and, after a couple of hours, very gladly gave it back to its owner, certain that if we spent another mile aboard it, we’d be in big, big trouble.

This thing is one of those not-quiteracetrack streetbikes that makes it very easy indeed to go a whole lot faster than you think you’re going. You get a hint of potential from the bike’s idle; at 1200 rpm, its rough and raspy, a kind of antisocial, bad-boy lope. Hop aboard, select first gear-and watch your step. The throttle wants a light touch. Hit it too hard once that rattly, racy dry clutch is engaged and the Bimota becomes a unicycle, its front wheel waaay off the ground in a lurid power wheelie.

But wheelies aren’t really the activity of choice for this bike. What is, is using the Ducati engine’s astonishing torque. Past 8500 rpm, the power falls off rapidly, typical of Ducati two-valve engines. But when run between 5000 rpm and 8000 rpm, this bike absolutely explodes away from apexes, launching out of corners so hard and so fast, no matter what gear it’s in, that you’d best pay attention-and hope the law isn’t.

Fortunately, the Bimota’s chassis is up to this. It’s very stable, with firm springing and damping working against fairly radical steering geometry. Because the bike is so light and its chassis so stiff, direction changes happen before you think about them, with the bike seemingly sensing what its rider wants. A bit of pressure on a footpeg is enough to start the process.

Slowing is almost as sudden a pro-., cess, thanks to lots of engine braking, caused by the Bimota’s high compression, and by brakes that answer to the same level of preparation as the rest of the bike’s components. They’re Brembo cast-iron rotors gripped by Brembo Goldline calipers. This is a combination that offers wonderful feel, good initial bite and terrific stopping power.

White says he’s spent upwards of $27,000 on his Bimota, and notes that figure doesn’t cover Campbell’s development costs-at least another $10,000. Smiling thoughtfully, he says, “I don’t doubt that someone on a GSX-R or CBR could outrun me, if it came to that, but as far as my pride in the bike and the feel that I get, I really enjoy this DB2 Bimota. It makes me smile-I mean, major grins. I hope this is some-

thing I can keep and maybe turn over to my son.”

His son, eh? Well, that makes White’s Bimota the ultimate heirloom. That’s no bad deal. For this Bimota is a mobile reference point that will help young Jacob White, now just a tyke who covers his ears when his dad’s DB2 rips into life, appreciate the acuity with which his father perceived, then dealt with, life’s apexes.

And it’ll also make young Jake wonder how his dad ever kept his driver’s license.

Jon F. Thompson