CarBrandLogos archive · Bimota · 1985

BimotaDB1

Full bodywork, a Ducati twin, and the model that rescued the factory.

Photo: Philippe on fr.wikipedia.org · CC BY 3.0

The story

A defining chapter in Bimota history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Bimota DB1, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Bimota had made its name building frames for other manufacturers' engines, and by the mid-1980s it needed a machine of its own that people would actually buy in reasonable numbers. Federico Martini, who had arrived from Ducati, designed the DB1 around the air-cooled 750 cc desmodromic V-twin from the Pantah family. It was the first Bimota to use a Ducati engine, which is where the DB prefix used on the company's bikes ever since comes from.

1986 Bimota DB1 · Ducati88M5 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

The design's most obvious feature is the bodywork, which enclosed almost the entire machine and hinged open for access, giving it a smooth, closed silhouette very different from the Japanese-engined Bimotas that came before. It was also small and light, which suited the modest output of the engine.

In production

688 were built between 1985 and 1990, an enormous number by Bimota standards, and the model is generally credited with pulling the company out of a difficult period. It also demonstrated that there was a market for a fully faired, Ducati-engined sports bike built in small numbers at a high price, a proposition Ducati itself would pursue shortly afterwards. The DB2 continued the line.

At a glance