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