Bimota

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BiMoTa is a small, semi-bespoke Italian motorcycle manufacturer.

Founded in 1973 in Rimini, Italy by Bianchi, Morri and Tamburini: the first two letters of each forming the name BI-MO-TA, a portmanteau which also resembles the 'moto' part of 'motorcycle'.

At the time of foundation, the state of frame design and overall packaging was poor, and so BiMoTa concentrated on taking great existing engines and building excellent motorcycles around them. They first customised the top-models of Suzuki, Honda and Kawasaki. In the 1980s they also customised Yamaha and Ducati.

Today they make very expensive and exclusives bikes, as they develop cutting-edge chassis and add very high-end suspension and other components to push handling and performance levels. In present, they build four models: DB5 Mille, SBK8 Gobert, SBK8 Santa Monica and Tesi 2D. Bimota model names reflect the origin of the engines they begin with; Yamaha- and Ducati- engined creations began with Y and D respectively. Thus the DB5 and SB8K are the 5th Ducati-engined and 8th Suzuki-engined models.

In 1997 the injected 500 cc two stroke V Due appeared.

In 2005 in Milan Motorbike Exposition, Bimota launched a new naked motorbike derived from the DB5Mille: the new DB6 Delirio.

Their bikes have been raced on occasion - in 2000 the Australian rider Anthony Gobert caused a major shock by winning a wet World Superbike race on one.