The Sum of Its Parts: 2000 Bimota DB4 for Sale

Bimota’s successful line of Ducati-powered bikes seems a bit unconventional for the brand, considering they’d always been about creating machines that fused powerful, well-engineered Japanese engines with lightweight, race-bred frames to create bikes that were more than the sum of their parts. But machines like this DB4 seemed to be more about just distilling a Ducati down to its barest essence, rather than creating something that was more of a “best of both worlds” sort of motorcycle. Nothing wrong with that: the DB4 worked exactly as advertised, although that Ducati, Perfected confection came at a high price…

Powered by a humble 904cc version of the oil and air-cooled Desmo v-twin that was introduced way back in the 1980 Ducati Pantah, the DB4 makes up in light weight agility what the 80hp lump lacks in grunt. Interestingly, Bimota took what could be considered a retrograde step with the fueling, and fitted the older 900SS’ Mikuni carburetors. I’ve heard mostly good things about Ducati’s fuel-injection of the period, so I’m not sure what prompted that move.

In both carbureted and fuel-injected format, it’s a very entertaining motor, but the bike is hardly a rocketship: a 12.1 second ¼ mile time is four-wheeled Import Tuner territory these days and the 131mph top speed can be significantly bettered by a bone-stock VW GTI. But the claimed 363lb dry weight means unmatched agility for a four-stroke motorcycle and the bike provides a thoroughbred experience in terms of sound, feel, and style. If the extremely patriotic Italian color scheme doesn’t get your attention, the distinctive oval tube frame or the stacked shotgun-style exhaust of the stock bike will. Of course, that all assumes you’re looking at a stock bike. Which this one obviously isn’t.

Most DB4s were fully-faired, but some percentage were sold like this one with an abbreviated half-fairing that does away with the belly-pan, perhaps to gain ground clearance on the brakes and in corners. The half-faired look reminds me a bit of a 1980s GSX-R, since many people removed that lower fairing for hard riding. It’s still a great-looking machine with the non-standard fairing paint, but definitely loses some of the blatantly Italian style of the standard bike.

264 built seems like a very small production run, but the DB4 is actually one of the more “mass-produced” models for Bimota and the bike’s relative popularity helped keep the company afloat during tough times.

From the original eBay listing: 2000 Bimota DB4 Custom for Sale

90% Ti bolts|
Front Brake Caliper/ fender holder is Magnesium rare)
Valve cover are sand-cast magnesium with Bimota logo
Clutch Housing Magnesium
Lightweight Yoyodone Clutch assembly super-lite
BST carbon Fiber Wheels
Titanium Exhuast slip-on Scorpion
Fender carbon OEM
Rear Fender Carbon
License plate holder Carbon
Clutch cover and belt cover Carbon from Ducati Performance
Rear Sets fully adjustable from Carbon Dream with Heel Protector (have eccentrics)
Ti-Kickstand Motocorse Italy
Anonzied MC rear sprocket
Stock Clamps
Clutch and Brake Master 16X19 RCS
Billet Brembo Calipers
Speigler Custom Brake Lines Direct fit no banjo bolts
9 came to the US and BOB StienBugler has 3 from bimota spirit
#005 this was born a quarter fairing Bimota came as a full fairing bike
Has Euro Headlight, with high and low beam instead of the USA HL which has one bulb
Has a Paioli Rear Shock with remote reservoir (one of kind)
Motocorse Italy Rear spools
Muffler brackets that bolt to head made of custom billet.
Yoyodyne Slave cylinder
Originally bought with 90 miles. bike was upgraded from then.
1482 miles. Has been owned by a “Ducati Professional its entire life.” 

There are just 1,482 miles on this DB, so dry-rotted rubber bits would be my biggest concern, rather than general wear-and-tear or mechanical abuse. The eye-searingly vivid exhaust may be period-appropriate, but the otherwise subtle machine would be better served by a simple carbon or titanium end can. I’m sure someone out there with an old R6 would love to fit this pipe, so finding a buyer shouldn’t be too hard. The listed modifications are otherwise simple bolt-on items and of good quality/high cost. 90% Ti fasteners? Yeowch, that’s a pricey way to save some weight… I like the cast magnesium engine cover though, and those carbon-fiber wheels should make a light bike even lighter.

Bidding is active, but up to just $6,200 with the Reserve Not Met. I have a feeling this one will struggle to reach the seller’s goals: the parts that have gone into it appear to be of high quality but overall, it feels kind of disjointed. Today, the Ducati/Bimota link is stronger than ever and this should at least be a stable investment, although I’d paint the fairing to match and get a less distracting exhaust fitted.

-tad