Bimota V-Due – The bike that bankrupted Bimota…

Bimota V-Due

With Ian Falloon

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As a small firm based mostly in Rimini on the Adriatic coast, Bimota started in 1973 initially constructing a body package for the Honda 750. Grand Prix success quickly established Bimota as one of many world’s premier aftermarket chassis producers, however their dream was all the time to supply a whole bike, together with the engine.

Monetary constraints ensured this wouldn’t be a actuality till the Nineties when Bimota started to develop a 500 cc two-stroke V-twin. With their roots in racing, Bimota initially hoped to develop the engine to be used in GPs. They have been inspired by the controversy inside the sport early within the decade about banning four-cylinder configurations.

However the degree of funding required to develop a whole new bike for GP resulted in a change of path, and the V-Due ended as a road bike.

Designed by Pier Luigi Marconi, the liquid-cooled 72 x 61.25 mm 499 cc 90-degree V-twin was deliberate to supply 110 horsepower at 9,000 rpm, with a six-speed cassette-style gearbox and the gearbox oil lubricating the principle bearings. In the end the facility was barely much less, at 100 horsepower at 9,000 rpm.

Bimota’s principal downside was that EPA necessities within the US had just about rendered the manufacturing two-stroke bike extinct. The enchantment of the two-stroke was its simplicity and excessive power-to-weight ratio, however the two-stroke precept of utilizing contemporary, fuel-rich consumption air to wash or scavenge the cylinder of exhaust gases resulted in a lot of this cost escaping out of the cylinder with the exhaust gases.

Then the Australian firm Orbital developed of a brand new direct gas injector system, with the injectors solely firing for the time being the exhaust ports have closed. The theoretical end result was good clear exhausts, freed from unburned hydrocarbons and this suited Bimota’s necessities.

Bimota tailored this to the V-Due with 4 injectors feeding the gas into four-port throttle our bodies with two butterfly components per cylinder and digital exhaust valves.

As anticipated, the V-Due supplied distinctive dealing with. Housing this new engine was a conventional Bimota alloy body, with extruded oval tubes in Peraluman 440 and a solid alloy swingarm with welded alloy arms.

On the entrance was a traditional totally adjustable 46 mm Paioli fork with carbon fibre outer tubes, and the rear suspension was by a horizontally mounted adjustable single shock absorber. Braking was by Brembo, with a pair of 320 mm entrance discs with four-piston calipers on the entrance and a 230 mm disc on the rear.

Rolling on a pair of the light-weight Antera aluminium wheels the V-Due was diminutive, weighing solely 160 kg. Reflecting the perfect in Italian model and performance the design was the work of Sergio Robbiano, with all of the bodywork carbon-fibre and imbued with Tricolore colouring.

Bimota displayed the V-Due on the Cologne Present in 1996, promising manufacturing throughout 1997. They even promoted its launch by using three prototypes three thousand kilometres from Sicily to the Isle of Man to commemorate the ninetieth Anniversary of the TT.

Sadly Bimota didn’t heed classes from the previous. Honda had unsuccessfully tried to gas inject Mick Doohan’s NSR500 GP machine in 1993 and whereas Bimota’s scavenging association differed to Honda’s, their digital injection system was plagued with issues.

In an effort to recoup a few of their growth prices the bike went into manufacturing prematurely. Bimota was already conscious the fine-tuning course of was not full and te first examples have been extraordinarily underpowered and suffered many issues. These included lack of oil, intermittent energy and piston failure.

The manufacturing facility was pressured to purchase again lots of the first 185 examples in-built 1997 and 1998, then deciding to halve manufacturing and proceed growth. Just a few Corsa Trofeo carburettor variations have been constructed for the Trofeo Bimota races in 2000, these proving extra dependable.

With a pair of Dell’Orto 39mm carbs the facility was 122 horsepower. In 2001 one other carburettor racing sequence was produced, the Evoluzione Corsa, now with 135 horsepower.

Launched prematurely the Bimota V-Due merely promised greater than it might fulfil. Though Bimota ultimately overcame the reliability points it was all too late. The V-Due’s failure led to Bimota’s chapter in March 2001 and solely 388 of the deliberate 500 V-Due’s have been constructed.

Even after Bimota’s chapter V-Due manufacturing continued on a restricted scale. 141 examples of the V-Due Carburettor Evoluzione have been produced between 2001 and 2003, the ultimate variations with the extra highly effective Trofeo 2000 engine.

The final model of 30 bikes was the 2005 Racing E.F. (Edizione Finale or Remaining Version). With 125-130 horsepower, JollyMoto exhausts, bigger brakes and black wheels, these have been assembled within the Meda manufacturing facility in Milan however weren’t street authorized. At the moment the V-Due’s principal declare is as the ultimate remnant of the two-stroke period.

Bimota V-Due Specs

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