Driving report Bimota Tesi 3D

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Driving report Bimota Tesi 3D
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Driving report Bimota Tesi 3D

Tesi lives

For a good 20 years, the luxury forge from Rimini has been trying to make motorcycles without a telescopic fork. Can the new Tesi 3D rekindle the discussion??

Ouch! Italian motorcycle designers are probably keeping up with the current haute couture creators: Only Size Zero as a clothing size really shows off their creations. How else would the tester sit down for the first time to have the feeling of having clamped the middle of his body in a vice, with the jaws exactly in the places where hard plastic parts usually have no business. No, the shapers of the Bimota should use the rear tank shape Tesi 3D think again. Otherwise there is a risk of lawsuits for damage to family jewels.

But we want to overlook such small inadequacies generously and are happy to have received one of the most unique motorcycles in the world with the pre-series Bimota. It’s great how finely the filigree and elaborate wheel suspensions contrast with the dynamically designed main body of the machine. No question about it, the new Tesi is the most beautiful to date. Shows their special construction full of self-confidence. And thanks to the air-cooled 1100 Ducati V2 that drives the machine, it’s extremely slim. No comparison to the rather chubby designs of the past.

Wow! This is what the Ducati twin should sound like! Throaty rattle when speed and throttle still command city mode. Shoot unleashed when winding country roads allow attack. The Tesi still sounds like a motorcycle, like robust Italian material, from which the dreams of all two-cylinder fans are tailored.

Should the slim beauty ever be expected to do a disdainful MOTORCYCLE performance measurement, the measurement protocol would probably show a few horsepower less than the 95 hoped for by Bimota. However, this remains only a guess, the further hardening of which is prevented by both the intense traffic on the Autostrada and the wild digital speedometer displaying values. After all, the Tesi is stable in fast motorway curves. Nervousness is alien to her despite a very steep steering head of 71.5 degrees. That calms you down, because the front wheel guidance looks disturbingly complicated even when the vehicle is stationary. The driver’s steering impulses are transmitted to the wheel hub via a multi-deflected linkage. You know that in principle from the automobile. The pushed swing arm ?? The name comes from the fact that the wheel axle is in front of the swing arm in the direction of travel ?? A cross-shaped tubular structure grips itself, the vertical arm of which forms the steering head in the hub. A certain Jack Difazio, the inventor of the wheel hub steering, would certainly be able to explain many advantages to us if he were still alive.

For non-technicians, that sounds pretty complicated so far. The suspension is still missing. This is achieved by means of a linkage that pulls an air spring strut next to the engine. The front and rear swing arms are mounted in two frame bridges that are artfully milled from the solid and bolted to the engine. An extremely stiff and also very light solution. Despite the heavy Ducati V2, the Tesi weighs only 168 kilograms dry, according to Bimota.

Is always amazing? And the author can justifiably claim, because he has driven almost all Tesi models ?? that the immensely complicated front suspension initially looks very normal from the driving experience. The anti-dive effect achieved through the carefully chosen geometry when braking is somewhat reminiscent of the BMW Telelever chassis.

Big advantage of the Tesi: When braking, the suspension responds extremely sensitively, which results in immense grip on the front wheel even on heavy bumps. Disadvantage: There is no feedback. Bumps are ironed beautifully smooth, even in an inclined position. What you have trained yourself as a motorcyclist over hundreds of thousands of kilometers, namely to pay attention to even the smallest vibration in an inclined position and to take it into account, suddenly becomes superfluous. The Tesi front wheel works completely decoupled, regardless of whether you are driving straight ahead or on a steep slope. You have to get used to it, but with a lot of trust in God you learn after a while that if one wheel starts to slip on the Tesi 3D, it is always the back first.

Which brings us to the subject of tires. The names are Conti and offer ?? at least on the streets around Rimini ?? not particularly good adhesion. In addition, the front tire supports the slightly indifferent behavior of the Tesi in curves. You want tried and tested shoes for the unusual machine quickly, especially since it would then be easier to assess the entire system.

So you can leave it alone with ambitious lean angles and enjoy the suspension comfort that is unusual for such a light sports motorcycle. The front wheel brakes specially developed by Grimeca for the Tesi, with which you can anchor hard and painlessly late, are also impressive. Together with the engine, which starts extremely powerfully from the basement and pulls through without holes, you will really enjoy yourself. A pleasure that only a few can indulge in. Because a whopping 30,000 euros for this wonderfully elaborately processed motorcycle is a lot of money. However, if a Ducati 1098 is too mass-produced and an MV Agusta is too strong for you, you can put the Tesi 3D in your garage. However, he should insist on a proper seating position beforehand if he not only wants to look at it but also wants to ride it with pleasure.

Tesi evolution

It all started with hydraulic steering and a honeycomb frame. In 1984, the then development manager at Bimota, Federico Martini, presented the first Tesi with a Honda VF 750 engine. It quickly became apparent that mechanical steering is essential for motorcycling. After all, Martini proved that at least the Difazio wheel hub steering can work properly. The first small series production came in 1990 with the Tesi 1D with the engine of the Ducati 851, which was quickly replaced by the 1D SR version. A Ducati four-valve engine, enlarged to 906 cm3, worked in it. What worked well in the prototype stage was already difficult to master in small series production. The complicated wheel hub steering requires extreme accuracy during assembly. Above all, the bearing in the hub had an extraordinary influence on the handling. Again and again there were extreme chassis weaknesses such as high-speed commuting in individual specimens. Bimota responded to the heavy criticism of the trade press with the revised 1D ES. With this significantly improved Tesi, most of the problems were eliminated, but the great success still failed to materialize. Bimota had other plans in the meantime, developed various four-cylinder machines and the sensational two-stroke Vdue rocket, of which a Tesi version was also built. The two-stroke development finally exceeded the financial and personnel capacities of the small series manufacturer, which is why it had to close its doors for the time being in 2000. In 2005 a Bimota Tesi appeared again. The improvised-looking 2D integrated an air-cooled two-valve engine from Ducati for the first time. And finally showed the spectacular chassis construction. At the EICMA trade fair in late autumn 2006, the resurrected Rimineser noble forge presented the much nicer designed Bimota Tesi 3D. With the modern double ignition 1100 V2 from Ducati you now have a suitable engine at your disposal.

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