Tesi Revisited
TESI REVISITED
MORE MOTOR AND BET1ER SUSPENSION FOR BIMOTA'S HUBCENTER WONDER
FAITHFUL READERS WILL RECALL that when Cycle World tested the Bimota Tesi 1D last year, we found that the bike and its alternative front-suspension system worked really well. We've just sampled the 1992 Tesi, and it's even better than last year's bike.
The bike is known this year as the Tesi lDsr, and it contains some im portant changes. One of those in volves Bimota's decision to make last year's optional 904cc engine, which is based on the Ducati 888 race motor, the only engine avail able. Another is a rethink of the bike's suspension componentry, re sulting in revamped front and rear shock linkages that provide more progressive action. And in place of the Marzocchi shocks found on the bike last year, suspension is now handled by Ohlins units.
The point of the Tesi's hub-center steering and its associated front swingarm is to isolate braking from suspension and steering. Doing so eliminates the binding and stiction
hard braking can inflict on conven tional forks. Additionally, because of the anti-dive characteristics of the Tesi's front suspension, it puts at the rider's disposal almost all of the bike's front-suspension travel all the time, even under braking. It there fore becomes possible, at least in theory, to brake deep and late into corners, even over bumps, without upsetting the bike's chassis, its atti tude or the line the rider has chosen. The theory works.
We sampled the Tesi lDsr by chasing Bimota test rider Gianluca Galasso around Lake Bracciano, northwest of Rome, over roads that combined rough and potholed sur faces with the sorts of oddly ra diused, surprise-per-heartbeat corners that are characteristic of many European backroads. We found the bike to be nothing less than magic, providing the sort of handling, braking and deep-corner stability and composure that riders of tele-forked bikes can only dream about, with a much smoother, more controlled ride than last year's bike.
Once aboard the bike, your only clue to its hub-center front suspen sion is the tiny top triple-clamp. Steering feels just like you'd expect motorcycle steering to feel, with the exception of a slight stiffness when the bike is barely rolling.
Once the clutch is tully engaged, though, there's nothing to tip you off to the bike's unusual front sus pension until you nail the brakes. Then, the one thing that lets you know you're on something unusual is the bike's refusal to nosedive. Though the front suspension has 3.9 inches of travel, it is designed to droop just eight-tenths of an inch under braking. This lack of dive seems odd at first, but you become used to it.
The Tesi lDsr's uprated V-Twin injects a welcome dose of excite ment into the bike. With this engine, the Tesi is a bullet, a two-wheeled adrenalin pump that accelerates hard from right off idle, but with a strong rush at 7500 rpm that gains steam all the way to its 10,000-rpm rev limit.
The Tesi's diminutive, spidery na ture certainly makes a contribution to its strong performance. Bimota claims a dry weight of 414 pounds for the Tesi, a figure that probably will grow to perhaps 440 pounds in the real world. Whatever the Tesi's real-world weight, it is not a big bike, at least not physically. In terms of the directions in which it points, however, the Tesi casts a very long shadow. It can be argued that bikes like Bimota's beautifully refined Fu rano represent the final pages of mo torcycling's first chapter. If so, bikes like the Tesi lDsr, set to sell in Italy for about $41,000, represent the opening pages of chapters to come. We can't wait to read on.
Jon F. Thompson
