Bimota 500 vdue

I saw this at AF1 Racing yesterday. 500cc, 90 degree, v-twin, 2 stroke. ~300 lbs wet. Hand made Jolly Moto chambers. One of maybe 5 in the US. 10 miles on it.

AF1 was doing a refresh of it.



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There is a reason that only 10 miles are on it.....the fueling and overall design makes it impossible to ride. It's a great bike to sit in the corner of your man cave as a piece of art, as a functional machine, eh, not so much.
 
Well here's the rest of the story on it.

Bimota built this motor to be fuel injected. They couldn't get it to work and it's one of the reasons they went bankrupt.

Fast forward a few years later and an individual bought all of the remaining parts and tooling. He redesigned the motor to run on carbs. This required new cylinders, pistons and heads. Once this was done, carbs fitted the bike is simply like no other. The power is broad and linear, not peaky like a traditional two stroke. And of course it is wicked fast.

I forgot to mention that it is a dual crank bike too. And fitted with BST CF wheels.

The guys weren't sure what the intentions of the owner are, but they got a few miles in on it.
 
During tests of the pre-production units by the press they ran great.

From Motorcyclist Magazine
Italian for V-two, the Vdue (say vee-doo-ay) stole the 1996 Cologne Motor Show when it was first unveiled. And the buzz continued after moto-journalists Alan Cathcart and Nick Ienatsch raved about the pre-production machines they rode in Italy. Cathcart even went so far as to state that Bimota had "reinvented the sport motorcycle."

Something bad happened to make it pass the EPA testing.
 
Bimota also makes a bike with a girder front fork instead of traditional cartridges. Sometimes engineers out think themselves, while others legitimately try to break new ground by designing on the fringe.

It's a good conversation piece, but I would rather have a ZX-14.
 
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