Bimota is well known for producing some bikes with astonishing engineering, such as the Tesi and the V-Due. Okay, the V-Due didn’t really work as advertised but it was still an astonishing idea at the time; a mass produced fuel injected two stroke repli racer. Of course while these engineering efforts were underway, Bimota still needed to have enough money coming in to “tenere le luci accese.” The Bimota DB bikes were created in partial response to this need.
The Ducati powered Bimotas (hence the “DB” name”) helped to keep the company afloat at different points in their history: with over 600 made, the original DB1 was about as mass-market as Bimota ever got. A little more than 400 of the later DB2 models were made. Unlike the DB1’s all-enveloping bodywork, on the DB2 the chrome molybdenum lattice frame is proudly on display, and the manner in which its bright red trellis breaks up the expanse of bodywork between fairing and fuel tank is certainly striking.
1997 Bimota DB2 Edizione Finale on ebay uk
Period reviews of the DB2 suggest that these bikes did exactly what Bimota said they did; offer an improved experience over the Ducati 900ss via a combination of the 900ss motor with improved/eye-popping Brembo brakes and top quality Öhlins suspension. The DB2 was advertised as a bike for people who appreciated refinement over raw power, lightness over light speed, finesse over brute strength.
NOTE: There is an excellent compilation of multiple reviews of the DB2 on the Motorcyclespecs website.
The seller appears to be a dealer and provides very little info about the bike in the ebay auction post,
- 2168 low miles
- Number 60 of 100 made
- 2 former keepers
- A very rare bike in lovely condition, cleanest one we’ve ever seen, collectors bike!!
The seller also indicates that the plaque fixed to the flush mounted filler cap denotes this machine as number 036 of the Edizione Finale, or Final Edition series, which consisted of just 100 bikes. The pic on the auction is a bit fuzzy however.
So what’s this DB2 worth? Well the seller is asking 8000 GBP/12500 USD which seems kind of high. Plus this DB2 is in a sort of odd-ball color scheme (personally I prefer the red/white color scheme such as the one previously listed on RSBFS) but I would be willing to bet there were less sold in this scheme and its therefore a bit rarer. Mileage is only 2168 which averages out to about 125 miles per year since new, although I would bet its been parked for a bit and might need some new fluids/rubber.
Personally I think this one is more for the collector of oddball bikes, the person who likes things like the Zane-era laverdas, the Mondial Piegga, the HD VR-1000….hmmmm….
–Marty/Dallaslavowner
Picture how good this one would look if the frame had been done in black. The red frame thing (as on the Tesi recently posted) seems more an effort to highlight the technology, rather than a pure design decision.
Gotta love the description – “two former keepers”!