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Bimota Tesi 3D RaceCafe Is “Pinnacle Weird”

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If you’re not listening to the Two Enthusiasts Podcast, you should…there is some good two-wheeled gold in the show. So, with a hat-tip to my co-host Quentin Wilson – whose new favorite phrase is “pinnacle weird” – we present you with perhaps the strangest motorcycle to debut at the 2015 EICMA show.

The Bimota Tesi 3D champions the hub-center steering chassis design, and is one of the more unique motorcycles in the industry right now. Its design is positively futuristic, so it is a little strange that Bimota is trying to make the Tesi 3D into a café racer with the launch of the Bimota Tesi 3D RaceCafe.

Powered by the same 803cc air-cooled v-twin engine that’s found in the Scrambler series, you can tell that Bimota is trying to latch onto the post-heritage trend that is dying a slow death in the motorcycle industry, but hasn’t quite figured out how to do it yet.

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Bimota Tesi 3D RaceCafe – Hub-Center Steering Café Racer

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Bimota has a number of things to debut at next week’s EICMA show, the biggest being the company’s latest model: the Bimota Tesi 3D RaceCafe.

The concept seems pretty simple, take the hub-center steering design of the Bimota Tesi 3D, and style it to look like the café racer of the future – if that oxymoron makes sense to you.

The above image is the teaser for the Bimota Tesi 3D RaceCafe, which shows a more traditional headlamp on the futuristic machine. Other changes include the use of Ducati’s air-cooled 803cc v-twin engine, which is currently powering the Ducati Scrambler line.

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motoDNA: Bimota Tesi 3D E Track Test

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The Emilia Romagna region of Italy is a melting pot for the Italian motorcycle industry. Positioned in the middle of this province, also known as the “terra dei motori” or the land of engines, sits the motorcycle company known as Bimota.

In September 1972 the now famous designer Massimo Tamburini crashed his Honda 750 Four at Misano racetrack — the stack left him with three broken ribs. While recovering from his unfortunate incident, he constructed a tubular steel frame to handle the horsepower then being produced by the Japanese bikes.

The frame he constructed lowered the centre of gravity and reduced the weight of the original Honda. Called the HB1, the first Bimota was born. Bimota’s name is derived from its founders’ initials: Bianchi, Morri and Tamburini.

Bimota has a rich racing heritage and has carried such great names as Virginio Ferrari, Davide Tardozzi, and Randy Mamola. Also who could forget Anthony ‘Go Show’ Goberts awesome WSBK victory at a wet Philip island in 2000 aboard the Bimota SB8R!

Born from a young university graduate’s mind, it was Engineer Pierluigi Marconi’s university thesis (Tesi in Italian) that directly led to the Bimota Tesi 1D hub-center steered motorcycle in 1990, the 1, 2 and 3D standing for the various Ducati engines used in the models.

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2013 Bimota Tesi 3D Naked – Hub-Center Steering for Two

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In my list of the Top 10 motorcycles ever, I think the Bimota Tesi 3D would make a strong showing. A truly unique machine, the lack of fairings only serves to showcase the hub-center steering mechanism, making the Tesi 3D an intriguing work of both art and science.

Separating the braking forces from the suspension travel, on paper motorcycle’s with hub-center steering have a significant mechanical advantage over their traditional counterparts, in reality though they have failed to live up to the hype on the track.

A product of either riders who are groomed to expect the workings of traditional linear fork suspension systems, or simply a answer to question that wasn’t asked, hub-center steering hasn’t exactly taken off…yet.

The Bimota Tesi 3D perseveres though, and for the new model year, Bimota has made my Tesi 3D obsession more conducive to my social agenda with motorcycles. This is all the excuse I need to share the photos after the jump with you. Enjoy.

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2010 Bimota Tesi 3D – A More Civilized Motorcycle for A More Civilized Man

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Changes to the 2010 Bimota Tesi 3D are subtle, but make the futuristic two-wheeler a bit more palatable for the daily driver. The most obvious change to the Tesi 3D would be the addition of its second seat, which officially makes the bike a Biposta, and allows for a passanger to witness the miracle that is hub-steering. Not stopping there, Bimota has gone on to refine the Tesi design further, making for a less edgy motorcycle. More details on the changes to the 2010 Bimota Tesi 3D after the jump.

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2010 Vyrus 987 C3 4V Supercharged Infects EICMA

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Behold the most powerful production motorcycle in the world. If you’re saying to yourself, “gee…that looks a lot like the Bimota Tesi 3D,” you’d be right, and that’s because the Vyrus 987 C3 4V was designed by Ascanio Rodorigo, who worked with Massimo Tamburini at Bimota in the early-1980’s. Now running the boutique shop Vyrus, Rodorigo has unveiled his latest revision in his series, the 987.

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