Any Bimota is a rare thing, but a Factory World Superbike available for sale is on a different level. Even more so with the case of this SB8K as it is claimed to be the bike that won the Philip Island race. This is an important piece of Bimota history and an amazing story. The 2000 WSBK season in general was some epic racing and is remembered by many long time fans. This bike had been listed for sale in the end of 2017 and posted here at RSBFS.
The Suzuki TL1000R never saw much success racing, so the race win of the Bimota SB8K was a high watermark for that powerplant. Highly modified as would be expected at this level of racing there are many details that show a window into what could have been. Shower injection was used on the race bikes. This would eventually trickle down to the street bikes and then become the go too fuel delivery system for most top tier sport bikes. A dry clutch was fitted as were magnesium engine parts. Sadly the dry clutch never became widely used on this motor. The wheels, suspension and brakes are the best of the best for the time. Exotic materials, including a carbon fiber frame section show how focused Bimota were at wining races and creating a very fast package.
Much has been written about Anthony Gobert. He was an ultra fast racer. He pushed hard both on and off the track. His off track adventures ended up cutting short what could have been a record breaking career. History loves a good story, and cares little if it is positive or negative. As time has marched on, many look back with fond memories of larger then life charterers.
From an ownership perspective this could be really interesting. With Bimota street bikes the beauty is that the running gear is sourced from other manufactures, so cost are kept down and parts availability is better then other super exotic machines. With a race bike everything is more highly tuned and more one off parts are used. The seller alludes to a relationship with the factory, so perhaps an introduction could be made. One would assume that the factory would be opened to helping to support the next owner enjoy the machine. They have a wonderful reputation with the street owners, so it is safe to assume that would apply to the race bikes as well.
From The Seller’s eBay Listing:
The ICON.
2000 Bimota SB8K WSBK Factory motorcycle raced by Anthony Gobert.
The one and only.
Winning bike at year 2000 Philip Island race, one the most exciting ever race in the SBK history.
Totally preserved, still fitted with telemetry. Untouched since.
Fully certificate of provenance.Amazing opportunity.
Claimed to be in the same condition it last left a race track, this is an amazing opportunity for a Bimota or WSBK fan to have an extremely special bike in their collection. An extra daring owner might even be tempted to service the machine and use it in anger at a track day. No Buy It Now price is listed, but this would be almost impossible to value. Data shows that the 2017 listing ended with a high bid of just over $20,000 and no sale. One can understand how the seller would have wanted to hold out for more. The appetite for bikes from this era has only increased since the last listing. Will be interesting for sure to see where the bidding goes.
Funny. I just posted this as well before checking RSBFS :). Check out the same sellers VYRUS. So cool!!
Ouch. 0% positive feedback! That is some of the worst feedback I have seen yet on flea bay. I am surprised they have not kicked him off, especially based on some of the comments. Awesome bike, just would not want to deal with the seller from the sounds of it.
Might have to post the Vyrus here too. That is a really interesting spec and seems to have been well enjoyed.
Thanks for your comment. I’m the seller, Gianluca Tiepolo from Stile Italiano. 0 feedback because our last listing on ebay was I think 3 or 4 years ago, we usually don’t spend our time on ebay. We have sold some of the most valueble unique and exclusive bikes ever: +25 Ducati motoGp’s, Ducati winning WSBK’s, Doohan/Spencer/Gardner works Honda’s, world winning MV, Britten, plus plenty of limited edition or top racing bikes. These kind of bikes do not sell on ebay (most of the times they are not even advertised) but sometime it’s good to display them to attract interest from potential buyers or to show to enthusiasts.
Talking about this specifica bike, I know it since day 1 (year 2000) and I have brought it personally to Donnington Park in the UK in 2003 to display when the road version of SB8K was presented to the press.
I would say to check before to judge people you don’t know, there are not only clowns out there.
Thanks to RSBFS website, always a very good meeting point for enthusiasts.
Gianluca Tiepolo
Stile Italiano SRL
Appreciate the response Gianluca. Yes, plenty of clowns out there, but plenty of dishonest sellers these days as well trying to cash in on inflated bike prices. I am a big Gobert fan. Would love to hear how you came upon the bike and RSBFS made a good point about factory support for spares. Good luck with the sale.
You arewelcome, happy to clarify. This bike was property of the factory from 2000, day after the race to 2017 when I have bought it. It is the only one. The history is amazing because not everybody knows for example that tuning of the TL1000R engine was done by Franco Farne’, the genius behind all Ducati Desmo factory engines, and it was the only time he put his hands on engine that is not Ducati, only because it was asked by his friend Virginio Ferrari, Bimota Team Manager. A very nice Italian history…
Hi, I own a Gobert replica Bimota, it was 2 of 50. The injection system is incredible with moving shower injectors. As Gianluca says this was the first time shower injection was used on a big twin, and the one and only time that the injectors moved up and down and tilted. Later Ducati used shower injectors on the 999r and it improved performance greatly, the injectors were not articulated though, instead a 12 jet pico mist injector was used, and that was the format for so many other big twin bikes that followed.
Very cool history! Thanks for coming by to comment and good luck with the sale.
-dc
Thanks for adding to the info here!
Exactly! Really happy to see that there are people around that know and appreciate all this. Farne’ was a genius working in the shadow.
I have a SB8K Santa Monica and a 999R. The shower injection is a rather cool piece of engineering.