Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127990
BimotaSBBR By Alan Cathcart Pho.tos by Kyoichi Nakamura 0[] 0 s that Bimota's new model, the one they've been talking about in my local cafe?" asked the toll collector at the Rimini Nord autostrada exit as he leaned out of his booth to get a closer look while I fumbled for some change. "It looks pretty fast, and judging by how long this ticket tells me it's taken you to get here from Pesaro, it obviously is - very! That Ducati engine inside has molto grinta (Jots of poke) and it sounds like nothing else on two wheels. The Japanese couldn't make a bike like this, could they - eh?'" . Well, actually, amico, I'm sorry, but they already did, sort of. And, sorry again, but this isn't the new Ducati desmodue-powered Bimota DB4 that your mates at your favorite watering hole have been telling you about, but the other new model from your friendly local bike manufacturer that's just been bailed out of bankruptcy by former Laverda boss Francesco Tognon. And this is a much higher-profile, much faster bike that's even more important to the company's continued existence than the entry-level (for Bimotal) DB4. For this here is the SB8R, and not only is it the first time anyone outside Bimota has ever ridden it in real-world conditions out on the street, it's also how can I tell you this? - an Italian bike with a Japanese heart. Because the SB8R is powered not by a Do.cati desmoqua,ttro but by Suzuki's TLlOOOR engine, the 90degree V-twin Superbike motor that the Japanese company launched alongside its similarly fuel-injected four-cylinder GSX-R7S0 barely a year ago, but in which it now seems to have lost interest after just a single season. . That makes the SB8R a hachi balbu eight-valver instead of an otto valvole. And as far as Tognon is concerned, Suzuki gave him U,e handsome present of a leading-edge engine design that will allow him not only to bring Bimota back to the World Superbike arena in 2001 but also to rebuild the company the same way it built its prestige the first time around, before the 500 Vdue twostroke troubles sent it off the rails over the last five years. The SB8R is Bimota's passport to the way back, which is also the company's way ahead - a return under Tognon's direction to its former preeminence as a chassi.s specialist supreme, bringing race-track frame teclmology to the street by re-equipping other firm's engines with Bimota's own avant-garde chassis designs. However, this is also Bimota's visit to the last-chance saloon. The success of the SB8R in delivering an improved package in terms of handling, performance and, yes, looks compared to the Japanese bike from which it sources its engine is 9'1cial to Bimota's' continued existence in terms of rebuilding the reputation of the troubled company. They won't have another chance and nobody knows this better than its new owner. That's why the customer SB8R's 10ng-awaited arrival in Bimota dealerships has taken so long, as Tognon's R&D team under new chief engineer Francesco Medici has worked hard and long to refine the new bike with an attention to detail that no other N 16 The SBaR is a significant street bike for Blmota because the small Italian company hopes it will be a significant race bike, too. This is the machine Blmota intends to race in the World Superblke series.