Massimo Tamburini, 1943-2014
MASSIMO TAMBURINI, 1943-2014
NEWS
Massimo Tamburini was not born in the US, but he reminds me of a classic
American success story. The Italian motorcycle designer was a totally self-made man, progressing from a plumberwith superb welding ability-to top-level engineer and designer who was equally at home in industrial workstations, at the drawing board, or behind the computer. His drive for perfec tion was not an obsession; it was simply a love for beauty and harmony.
Early in his career, Tamburini, in association with Giuseppe Morri and Valerio Bianchi, started a plumbing shop called Bi.Mo.Ta. But Massimo also loved motorcycles and especially MV Agustas. The MV Agusta 750 Sport fascinated him, but the bike was among the worst handling and inconsistent-performing bikes of the time. So he bought one
and planned to get the best out of what seemed at first to be an unfortunate investment.
He sketched a frame inspired by the MV 500 GP racer, built a jig and welded it himself, impeccably. The result was so good, in fact, that others asked him to build replicas for them. But there were not enough MV Agusta 750 Sports to go around, soTamburini resorted to the four-cylinder alternative, the Honda CB750.
With enough requests, Bimota Motorcycles was created and its first bike, the Honda-powered HB1, was born. Few were built, but it was a great starting point. The quality of Bimota’s creations became benchmarks for motorcycle chassis design and demand ballooned. Next was the SB1, a Suzuki 500 Daytona-powered racer. When Suzuki revealed its powerful four-cylinder GS750, Tamburini designed a new chassis for it and named it
the SB2, featuring a proprietary link-actuated monoshock and swingarm pivot coaxial to the countershaft sprocket-all groundbreaking stuff at the time.
He loved playing with the powerful Japanese four-cylinder units, which at the time were plagued by inadequate chassis designs.
He hoped the Japanese manufacturers would hire Bimota to do chassis R&D, but it never happened.
Tamburini was eventually pushed out of Bimota but was hired by the Cagiva Group’s Claudio Castiglioni to be the chief designer at Cagiva and Ducati.
At the time, Ducati was in poor shape but had the excellent 750cc Pantah twin up its sleeve. Around this
very efficient unit, Tamburini designed the Ducati Paso. Carburetion problems plagued the Paso, but it was the besthandling Ducati to date. Then came his pièce de résistance, the Ducati 915, with its eightvalve desmodromic engine, under-seat exhausts, singlesided swingarm, and stunning styling. It remains an absolute icon of motorcycle design.
After Cagiva acquired MV Agusta, Tamburini was hard at work on the F4 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. His son, Andrea, said that all his father wanted was to live long enough to finish the F4 and save MV. Instead, he survived another19 years,
designing gems like the Brutale, and was a driving force behind the current 675cc triples. With the MV
ship righted, Tamburini retired to his beautiful residence in the hills of San Marino, where he set up an immaculate shop and began working on yet another new project.
In April, Tamburini succumbed to lung cancer in a San Marino hospital. He will be remembered as one of the greatest innovators in motorcycle chassis design, and also as a superb stylist.
He was blessed by an ability to work with his hands, plus a great passion and dedication to his job.
-Bruno dePrato
