My other bike........ lets see your other bikes

I just thought i would share,

I have spent the past 2 days detailing her for "The Festival Of Italian Motorcycles" It is an annual gathering of Italian bikes, an out door show that usually attracts a couple of hundred bikes. Rain is forecast for tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see how many turn up. She certainly won't be this clean until next year..

The bike is a 1996 Bimota SB6, Bimota are an Italian bike manufacturer who build Chassis only no motors (well 1 motor a 500cc 2 stroke that sent them broke!!) My bike SB is a Suzuki Bimota, the 6 refers to it is the 6th variant. It has a GSXR 1100 motor but weighs 40Kg less than the donor Suzuki.

All current Bimotas use Ducati engines.

Here is my SB6, nice and shiny for tomorrow.

Sweet-looking bike you got there. :)
Direct Connection was the name of the frame design, correct?

I remember that bike from those days, reading about it in Fast Bikes magazine from England.
Crack pots Jimmy Miller and crew were typically on a mission to get arrested or die trying while testing a bike.

I still have magazines with the V-Due (spelling probably incorrect) 500cc V-twin 2-stroke.
Wet dream on paper, but then when it finally came out for sale, it ran poorly and the direct fuel injection was replaced with conventional carbs, and it supposedly had sacrificed a big chunk of power once running decently.

YZEtc wrote:

Sweet-looking bike you got there. :)
Direct Connection was the name of the frame design, correct?

I remember that bike from those days, reading about it in Fast Bikes magazine from England.
Crack pots Jimmy Miller and crew were typically on a mission to get arrested or die trying while testing a bike.

I still have magazines with the V-Due (spelling probably incorrect) 500cc V-twin 2-stroke.
Wet dream on paper, but then when it finally came out for sale, it ran poorly and the direct fuel injection was replaced with conventional carbs, and it supposedly had sacrificed a big chunk of power once running decently.

Spot on with the frame name YZ,

The frame is one straight line between steering head and swingarm, it actually wraps around the outside of the engine. The bike is wider than most, but incredibly low. It uses the water cooled GSXR 1100 engine, but as all the bodywork is a carbon fibre composite, and any unnecessary bits are left off, it weighs 40kg less than the donor Suzuki GSXR1100. The wheelbase was about the same of most 600's of the day, so it is an interesting blend of power and handling.

It is a great bike i love it, being Italian though, working on it is sometimes challenging, the design is ALL about weight and size. An oil change is a pain as the frame wraps around the engine covers, so a 10 minute job takes at least 30 minutes. To change front sprocket, requires the engine to be dropped--- yup the frame wraps around that as well

I used to read the competing mag---performance bikes---Forsythe was one of the best and funniest writer's of the time.

The V_Due (spot on spelling) sent Bimota bankrupt, one of many times Thankfully all bikes now have donor engines from Ducati.

Good god....you own a Bimota????



Those things define sexy in terms of sportbikes.

Wow. You are blessed.

Dude. That's a cool bike.

This is my other bike. I like yours better even if it is harder to work on.

My bike now. I have to figure out how to keep it and get a R2.

Thanks guys,

I see you are a dedicated Yamaha man WRoldman, your R1 would leave my Bimota for dead. She was fast in 96, but it is scary how these superbikes have just kept getting better.

I remember when the 1989 EXUP FZR1000 was released, most of the journalists were saying rush out and buy one of these before they are outlawed....... A modern 600 would outperform one now!!!

Motokid, i don't know about being blessed, but i do consider myself fortunate to own it. The real scary thing is that these bikes are not much more expensive than the WR

When i was looking for a road bike, i wanted something different, i was looking for Old GSXR-R, OWO1's, MV Agusta, or Moto Morini. Very few Bimota's are available. In thier 30 year history, they have made as many bikes as Honda do in 1 day. Ducati's have always worried me in regards to maintenance, the Bimota offers the best of both worlds, Italian design and Japanese reliability, when i saw it advertised i snapped her up.

Hi toneout,

Yours definately looks more comfortable than mine

I don't know much about cruisers, is it a Victory?????

How does it handle with a rear tire of that size?

I had a 1998 YZF-R1K, too, WRoldman.
What a great engine. :)

I forgot to post my other bike, which I've had for two weeks and just put it through CT. DMV inspection and registered it for road use so I can legally ride the local trail loop going in and out of the State Forest.
Gots to keep Smokey the Bear happy. :)

It's a 2009 Yamaha WR-250F.
Picked it up for a fair price with low hours on it.
Mint, save for a few scratches on the plastics.
Stock, they're pretty corked-up to meet more silly EPA regulations (to qualify for what's called a California green sticker, which is kinda' like street-legal EPA specs on an off-road bike. It even has an AIS system on it ).
Once you remove those parts and rejet the carb, hold on!, because this thing rips.

Dry weight of 236 pounds.
Feels light and feathery.
Gains revs very quickly, yet is still surprisingly easy to putt through slow sections.

Major differences between this and the WR-250R is the massive loss of weight (40lbs is a huge difference in off-road bikes), it has a fraction of the flywheel mass (quicker reving up and down), the suspension feels twice as good (the shock is a real KYB unit), and, overall, it gives more confidence while riding, which is priceless.

The advantage of the WR-250R is that it's streel-legal off the showroom floor - registering the WR-250F wasn't a frustrating, hair-pulling experience, but it did require extra time, effort, and money. :)

rpo83 wrote:

Hi toneout,

Yours definately looks more comfortable than mine

I don't know much about cruisers, is it a Victory?????

How does it handle with a rear tire of that size?

It is definitely more comfortable than a sportbike. I switched from my VFR to this. It is a Suzuki M109R. It handles like crap with a fat (260) rear tire and a chunky (150) front. It is definitely slow to turn. I have blasted up and down the Dragon lots of times on it and it still goes fast enough to get a ticket there, so that's not too bad. What hurts with the handling is the lowered rear. I start dragging the exhaust long before the tires lose grip.

I am certainly intrigued by the Bimoto. I must admit that I only recognized the emblem but I have never seen one. Are they as rare in Australia as they are in the US? It is a gorgeous bike. It must go like snot. I'd be way to cautious to push it.

There's an interesting mix of very nice bikes here. Not just dirty ones either.

After seeing this...


I feel like getting this..

@rpo83 - Agreed, the development of these bikes is staggering. When I take it to the track, I get the "dinosaur" comments.

@YZetc - Yeah, it's all about the motor. I think it is the best motor they have put in a sportbike. However, I have not gotten to sample the crossplane. I would like to do legalize a dirtbike like you. But that means I have to go Michigan to get the ball rolling. WI makes it next to impossible.

My other bike is a 1982 Yammy RD350LC, which I'm currently restoring. Pictures to come soon.

OP - that bimota looks incredibly sexy! i'm very, very jealous.

i've got two other bikes right now. i've been thinking about adding another to the fleet in the coming year.

my '98 vfr800:


the '05 gsxr600 track slut. i'm still learning, so not much knee-down time yet.

Very nice VFR Marty. I got rid of a 2k2 VFR for my M. I miss that bike. I wish I could have both still. I do not miss VTEC.

mtb wrote:

After seeing this...

THAT. IS. AWESOME.

Nice bikes!

I used to have a 98 VFR also. Loved that bike and sold it to a friend.

These are what are currently sharing space with the WRX

My 07 Vegas 8-Ball with a Hammer front end



My 05 R6 on my way down to do a track day at VIR...



..... where I proceeded to high side it. It doesn't look like this anymore : (

hughtwg wrote:

So ummmm.....do I have to ask......

motokid wrote:

So ummmm.....do I have to ask......

If you mean is that me, no sorry. I'm a middle aged fat white guy with a bald spot. We were doing a photo shoot for a calendar. She's definitely gorgeous though and the girls not bad either.

This is my 1988 Hawk GT


And my HD Crossbones. I did all the work to it.

2009 Yamaha WR-250F.

Bought used last November, and then the parts were added (and later removed) to put it through Dept. of Motor Vehicles inspection and registered for street use.
No because it's a good street bike (it ain't because it's overall gearing is too low), but because that's what my local state forest requires to ride on the trails out there.

Excellent off-road motorcycle. :)

My 'o5 Street Fightered Gixxer 1ooo.



'o9 Ninja ZX6R.

i picked this up last friday:



unfortunately the dealer had to come pick it up last night as it's leaking oil from what looks like the base gasket or the case halves

marty wrote:

i picked this up last friday:

Very nice, love that single sided swingarm! Details please...

marty wrote:

unfortunately the dealer had to come pick it up last night as it's leaking oil from what looks like the base gasket or the case halves

Ouch! Although better earlier than later...