We last saw this beautiful Bimota Tesi 3d back in January of this year with an eye popping asking price of $50,000 USD. Now its back with a asking price of $28,000 USD which is still $10,000 over the MSRP but goodness, it is striking.
To review our post from earlier this year, one of the things that seems to happen with exotic bikes is people are afraid to alter then in any way, perhaps due to the desire to preserve re-sale value. The previous owner of this Bimota Tesi Carbon 3d seems to have decided that maintaining the OEM look wasn’t a priority and made some changes, including what appears to be custom paint (although I could be wrong on that), different wheels and an altered exhaust system. Personally I think it looks great, like something Aeryn Sun/the peacekeepers in Farscape would ride.
The underlying bike is be a 2008 Bimota Tesi 3d Carbon edition and we have posted numerous times previously about the Bimota tesi series here on RSBFS, how they began in 1991 with the 1D, continued with the 2d in 2005 and then seems to have finished with the 3d in 2007. The original Tesi (which translates to “thesis” in Italian), was the work of Bimota founder and legendary designer Massimo Tamburini, the same person responsible for the Ducati 916 and MV Agusta F4.
For anyone not familiar with the Tesi 3d, when the bike was launched reviewers pretty much said “epic design, merely good bike”. The major complaint was the Ducati engine which only put out 95 horsepower. Despite only medium power, handling was excellent due to the hub centered front fork design which also offered improved braking due to their being no front-end dive.
A detailed review of the Tesi can be found here.
2008 Customized Carbon Tesi 3D on ebay
This particular tesi seems to have been actually ridden by its owner. The bike isn’t perfect, with some cracks in the tank cover. Mileage is under 5000 which is barely broken in for most bikes but more than you see on a lot of Bimota Tesi machines. Unfortunately, the seller doesn’t provide any ownership history or comments regarding the changes that were made, instead just posting standard specification info.
Now we come to an issue with this bike, the price. The seller is listing the asking price as 50,000 28,000 USD , which is significantly less than the price from January but still a big jump up from other Bimota Tesi 3d’s we have seen for sale. Interestingly the seller even posts in the auction that the MSRP when new was only 17,899 so the BIY price is 10k over the new price.
The price is a bit a puzzle to me, even with a location in Los Angeles (where prices are typically higher) would not normally justify such a large increase in asking price. The ebay listing does reveal that this bike is listed as being #29 of 29 produced so the seller may be thinking that this justifies the extra monies (high end collectors often want either the 1st or last bike produced). Does this make it worth the asking price? Not to me, although if it came with a date with Claudia Black I would certainly have to give it serious consideration.
-Marty/Dallaslavowner
That whole first and last number of production doesn’t have enough weight to drastically alter the price on any collectible of this caliber, esp not the last one.
I agree David. As much as I love a little bit of custom work and modification, for that price why not just buy the Vyrus?
Don’t forget the stealership is tacking on a $595 “set-up fee”.
The Tesi was actually the work of Pier Luigi Marconi. Massimo Tamburini had left Bimota by then
Someone made a price error as those bikes were $35k to $40k when new. Oh, and wrapping your exhaust is a really bad thing to do.
Joel
The seller should stop thinking and just price it reasonably
The carbon version was more expensive than the standard version
MSRP when new was only 17,899 – REALLY? I think it was in 30k+ USD.
Pier Luigi Marconi designed the original Tesi (as a part of university project) – the 3d was designed by Andrea Acquaviva.
We had a non carbon Tesi 3D and it was $50k or close to that. So $18k sounds a little off.