A Bimota Built For Two

A BIMOTA BUILT FOR TWO

CW RIDING IMPRESSION:

FZR600 power with sport-touring pretensions

YOU SAY YOU WOULD HAVE bought a Bimota instead of that turbo Porsche, but you couldn't find one that came with a seat for your sweetie? Well, your troubles are over. Meet the Bimota Bellaria, a bike that's a significant departure for the Italian specialty firm.

First, though it's designated the YB9, it’s the first Bimota production model ever to be assigned a name. Bellaria is the name of a beach near Rimini, where the Bimota factory is located; translated, it means “fresh air.” Second, instead of being finished in the usual Bimota single color, it comes in a multi-hued paint scheme. And third, the Bellaria is the first Bimota ever to be designed as a two-seater. Though some previous Bimota models have carried passenger pads, these were more afterthoughts than actual seats.

Along with the Bellaria's rear seat and second set of footpegs comes a role that Bimotas haven't been asked to play before: that of the rational sportbike. While its performance isn't as hard-edged as the racebikeinspired 400, 750 or lOOOcc exotics the company usually puts out. the Bellaria is much more practical. Using Yamaha's performance-intensive FZR600 engine to create that kind of sporting two-seater may seem paradoxical. but the payoff of that paradox is a bike with better performance, yet more comfort, than the stock FZR600.

Bimota uses the FZR engine in standard form, but fits its own 4-into2-into-l exhaust system instead of Yamaha's 4-into-1 design. That, coupled with a redesigned induction system that funnels air through ducts in the bodywork, yields an extra 3 horsepower. Bimota claims 83 rearwheel horsepower (Yamaha's 91-hp claim for an EXUP-equipped FZR is measured at the crank), and says that in testing, the prototype 1 rode topped out at 1 53.5 miles per hour. That top speed aside, the Bellaria is the first Bimota not designed with race-track pretensions, and its riding position gives this away. Its footpegs are set much lower and further forward than those of other Bimotas, and its handlebars are higher and wider, encouraging an upright, straight-backed and very comfortable riding position. The stepped seat is higher, too, giving more space for longer legs, while its passenger section is comfortable enough to be used as more than an emergency spare.

Carrying a passenger, though, requires the preload on the Marzocchi shock to be jacked-up considerably, and you have to be some kind of contortionist to manage this, thanks to the inaccessible location of the preload-adjustment knob, tucked away inside the flank of the seat section. This is reached by squeezing an arm up the backside of the bike, rather like a veterinarian delivering a calf.

To alleviate the problem. Bimota plans to equip production bikes with a half-inch-longer spring, and to specify more spring preload as standard. With those changes, the rear suspension should be a better match for the front suspension, which is truly impressive, thanks to Marzocchi’s new upside-down fork, with 54mm upper outer tubes and 40mm lowers. These combine with the bike’s 17-inch Michelin radiais to give really excellent road feel. The Bellaria just floats over bumps and ripples, the fork absorbing the punishment without allowing the bike to be deflected from its course.

The Bellaria steers about as well as any streetbike I’ve ever ridden, though it doesn't deliver the razoredge, race-derived flickability of the FZR750-powered YB4. Instead, you’re offered a motorcycle that is fractionally slower-steering, but more stable and infinitely more reassuring. As you hustle along a series of twisting mountain roads with total confidence, it’s hard not to find yourself smiling, even though the Bellaria’s tech sheet might lead you to be wary. A 22.5-degree rake, 3.6 inches of trail and a 54.1 -inch wheelbase are the marks of a 500cc GP bike, not of a two-up sportster with such stable.

easy handling.

Certainly not hindering the Bellaria’s handling is an all-new, twinspar frame made from aircraft-grade aluminum alloy, and bearing a strong family resemblance to its predecessors in the Bimota YB family. The frame helps save weight as well, and though the prototype hadn't been put on the scales before I rode it, Bimota expects the bike to be 10 to 15 pounds lighter than the 442-pound Yamaha FZR600.

Pierluigi Marconi. Bimota’s youthful chief designer, has performed a remarkable transformation on the hottest of the 600 brat pack. What at first might appear to be a twowheeled compromise, is, in fact, a truly delightful bike, and after a few pre-production gripes have been resolved, it may well turn out to be one of the best Bimota models ever.

The Bellaria will be produced in small numbers, and is being aimed primarily at European markets, though some surely will find their way to Japan, as well as to the USA and Australia. My bet after riding the prototype is that as the bike becomes known. Bimota will have to revise its production figure upwards quite swiftly. —Alan Cathcart