Comeback kings

2015 BIKES RIDDEN
est pick of all the current Bimotas, the new Tesi 3D
Naked genuinely makes sense. If you’re going to
spend £25,450 on a new motorcycle, you might as
well have one that is fundamentally different to
every other bike on the road, one that embodies an
engineering leap of faith that’s arguably greater than
anything from a bike manufacturer in the last 30 years.
Bimota’s new BB3, for example, is no doubt an astonishing
thing to ride, but it’s essentially an S1000RR with knobs on (or
indeed nobs on, depending on your view of the owners). But the
Tesi, thanks to its hub-centred front end and omega chassis, is
something you cannot buy from a mainstream manufacturer. It is
unequivocally special.
And it’s clear where that money has been spent. The frame –
each side milled from a 100kg lump of aluminum – is the
centrepiece, with the trellis front and rear swingarms looking
more like art than structural components. Peer closer and it’s a
blizzard of CNC machined porn. Every linkage, lever, bracket and
footrest has been hewn from solid billet. Casting and forging are
for the lower orders.
And in contrast to the old Tesi 2D, where the bodywork
appeared curiously unfinished, with exposed air intakes
disrupting the bike’s lines, the 3D looks slick, resolved and tidy.
There’s no hint it was designed and built by a company with fewer
employees than a small McDonald’s.
The only mildly disappointing aspect is you can’t see much of
the really clever bits. By its nature the fiendishly complex hub is
obscured by the brake discs, and all but one of the rods that
transfer the steering input from handlebars to hub are hidden by
the half-fairing. All you can see of the steering mechanism is the
rod and lever on the left hand side.
So what’s new with the Tesi 3D Naked? Well, it’s no more naked
than previous models – the name is to differentiate it from the
Anniversary model which has more carbon fibre – so it looks
largely similar to its predecessor the Tesi 3D Evo.
The obvious difference is the pillion seat that Bimota say was
requested by potential owners who wanted the option of using the
bike as more than just a solo posing weapon. Once that decision
was made, the underseat exhausts had to go to prevent barbecued
pillion buttocks.
Less noticeable but more important from a rider’s point of view
are the changes to the handlebars. These have been raised and
pulled back to give a less sporty, more wrist-friendly riding
position. Jump from the DB9 Brivido (the unhinged super-naked
tested last month) to the Tesi and there’s no great change in riding
position – the Tesi is that upright.
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