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/128209
Cycle News European editor Alan Cathcart (left) recently sat down for a chat with new Bimota owners Lorenzo Ducati (center) and Giuseppe Della Pietra (right). The Italian duo has grand plans for reviving the embattled marque. streetbike with a GP-style twin-spar aluminum chassis, which won the 1987 World IT Formula 1 Championship, scored victory in the first-ever World Superbike race the following year, and came within an ace of taking the debut World Superbike title at season's end. But Bimota's annual production was measured in hundreds rather than thousands of units, and the company's focus on technical innovation at the expense of profitability eventually outstripped its financial resources. The hub-center-steered Tesi, powered by Ducati's desmoquattro Superbike engine, wasn't a huge success, but it wasn't the nail that finally shut Bimota's corporate coffin. That dubious honor falls to the Vdue 500, the firm's first - and last - attempt to build its own engine in its own frames to create a high-class hybrid, rather than purchasing and installing motors from the four Japanese manufacturers, BMW or Ducati. The troublesome tantrums of the Vdue's twin-crank V-twin two-stroke engine, matched to its groundbreaking direct fuel-injection system. led to a recall of all the customer bikes delivered and, eventually, to Bimota's bankruptcy. Against this background, the identity of the main players in the company known as Alternativa Moto, which has acquired Bimota and plans to relaunch it later this year, comes as a surprise. The president of the company is 50-year-old Lorenzo Ducati - yes, that's right, as in desmodromics: He's the son of one of the three brothers who founded Ducati in Bologna back in 1926 for the manufacture of radio components then, in the immediate postwar era, switched to making motorcycles. The managing director of Alternativa Moto is Ducati's partner, Giuseppe Della Pietra, the 47-year-old former CEO of Bimota during its final days, whose belief in the company's potential is such that he's put his own money on the table to bet on its future under new management with a clean balance sheet. The chance to speak to the two men who've assumed the task of reviving one of the most charismatic but troubled names in modern-day motorcycling and learn their future plans for the Bimota marque uncovered a series of surprises which they've kept well hidden from public knowledge - until now. AC: Mr. Ducati, your name is a very famous one in the world of bikes. Are you a motorcycle enthusiast yourself? LD: Very much so. My father Marcello was the youngest of the three brothers who founded Ducati before the war, and afterwards when the company began making motorcycles, he was the one most closely concerned with production - one of the other two brothers took care of the technical department, the third one of administration. Today my business, Ducati Automazione, just outside Milano, manufactures electromechanical gate openers, but I've always ridden bikes, and my Ducati Monster has several thousand kilometers under its wheels! However, the idea of becoming involved with Giuseppe Della Pietra, here beside me, in actually manufacturing motorcycles came about entirely by chance - I wasn't looking to follow in my father's footsteps! AC: So how did this actually happen? GOP: I joined Bimota as "Direttore Generale" [MD or CEO - AC] in July 1999 and immediately became aware that the company faced serious problems. This was due mainly to poor management earlier in the decade, leading to flawed commercial decisions especially product-related ones - and a resultant weight of debt that the existing ownership declined to address. We tried to resolve the situation, but by then matters had gone too far, and in spite of what I believe was a genuinely attractive model lineup with the Suzuki-engined SB8R V-twin and the Ducati desmodue-engined DB4, the company filed for bankruptcy in June 2000, since when its fate has been in the hands of the court-appointed liquidator, until last December. But, after the collapse of Bimota, I was convinced that the company could be made viable, with a new model strategy and without the historical debt hanging over it. Even in the final days, it came very close to trading profitably, if not for the cost of servicing that debt, and I did not believe that the Bimota name had suffered such great damage in the eyes of the publiC, who retain an appreciation for its core values of leading edge technology, coupled with innovative design and distinctive styling. However, it was only when a mutual friend introduced us completely by chance that Lorenzo and I started talking about going into business together under the Bimota name. That was two years ago, and now all our work to give new life to the marque is finally coming to fruition. LD: Nevertheless, we're right at the beginning of the project - but we're very satisfied with the way things have gone so far, and we have very precise objectives which are well defined, as well as realistic. We've costed things out carefully and have a clear idea of where we're going, which has been reinforced by the hundreds of supportive phone calls, emails and letters we've received. We're convinced there is a place in the market for the distinctive, high-quality product which Bimota represents - especially with the specific plans already in place, which we're here to reveal to your readers for the first time. AC: When did you begin negotiations with the liquidator to take over the remains of the company? GOP: We began discussions with the tribunal in Rimini in the summer of 2001, and to begin with we were placed under some pressure to conclude matters, because they were hurrying to raise what could be a significant sum for creditors by selling off the stock of bikes remaining in the factory, which they perceived as being subject to changing fashion, rather like clothes or music, and so having a short shelf life! We made a first offer for what remained of Bimota in December 2001, in the amount of Ure 4 biJIion [then about £ 1.3 miJIion/$2 miJIion/Euro 2.1 million - AC], with a March 2002 deadline for acceptance. For reasons which are today immaterial, this offer lapsed, so Lorenzo and I reconsidered our joint position and decided to try again. We had ongoing discussions with the liquidator and made a second offer in November, 2002, for the sum of Euro 1.45 miJIion [now about £.95 million/$ 1.55 miJIion - AC] but unfortunately we now had another competitor based in Italy who presented a threat to our intentions. Inevitably, we had to undergo what amounted to a auction, but we eventually emerged as the winners by agreeing to a bid of Euro 2.35 million [about £ 1.5 million/$2.5 million] with the tribunal, as a result of which we now own the complete rights to the Bimota marque, as well as the remaining assets of the bankrupt company. We received the keys to the Rimini factory on December 4, 2002. AC: What exactly did this sum buy you? GOP: First of all. the Bimota trademark and the worldwide rights to the name, as well as the several patents which the company owns and are registered worldwide. Secondly, the actual contents of the Rimini factory, but not the building itself, which is only leased. This includes all the machine tools, patterns, molds and electronic manufacturing and data-gathering equipment, as well as the spare parts inventory. We also acquired a collection of prototypes and historical examples of production models down the years and an unsold stock of new bikes totaling around 70 motorcycles, comprising SB8R, DB4 and VB 11 models. As well, there were a significant number of Vdue 500cc two-strokes - 110 of those in all, plus many spare parts for the V-twin motor. In addition to that, there came 160 Suzuki TLlOOOR engines for the SB8R as delivered from Japan, plus another 53 installed in already partially assembled SB8K machines. AC: So what do you plan to do with all this? Where does Bimota go from here? LD: These assets now belong to a new company called Alternativa Moto, of which I am the president, and Mr. Della Pietra is the CEO. We have a clearly defined road map for Bimota's return to manufacturing motorcycles, along which we have already begun traveling and which I will ask him to explain in detail. GOP: The first and most important decision we have taken is that future Bimota models developed cue I e n e WI' S