Be still my beating heart. I think I have told you the story of how I nearly had one of those?
Meanwhile, My mother is in the process of digitising all her photo albums. This is me when I was 6 or 7 years old with my younger brother and father with a bike he was restoring (just needed the badges to finish it).
The nose of the car in the background was my Grandmothers Mazda RX-3 Coupe. The very first one in New Zealand. She took the train to Auckland so she could pick it up there and drive it back to Wanganui (a full days drive in those days).
I went to collect a car one day for a job from Gloucester, got chatting to the guy and he suggested i may be able to move an Alfa romeo he had to a restoration specialist, we went into his garage and i genuinely came to pieces. He had not one but 2! 2 stroke 500s!
A skoal bandit replica RG500 (bored to 570 ) in an Rgv250 Vg22 frame. This was featured in the magazine
And an RD (RZV to you…) in 3ma TZR frame sprayed up like an YZR M1.
Both were exquisite. Absolutely perfect and probably the best pair of bikes I’ve ever seen.
He also had a genuine V-Due Bimota (google it) i nearly cried.
I personally don’t think they were as bad as they were made out to be. Sure, really narrow powerband, and ‘fluffy’ below about 6000 rpm. But you expect that with a two-stroke (especially one built by Italians… sorry @komemiute).
But it was super lightweight, and even in the 2000s the brakes and suspension were still more than adequate. It reminded me of a RGV250 on steroids that handled 100% better.
It was just the wrong bike at the wrong time because of all the emissions controls coming into force in the US and Europe. With a couple of years development it could have been a winner.
To be fair to them, with the emissions, plus the imminent financial issues Bimota was facing. It never had time to mature. Them panicking and retrofitting carbs to the rest of the production run finished that company off.
If that direct injection issue had been sorted out, which I’ve read a few accounts from people saying it was, it genuinely could have been a game changer and saved the stroker
I fricking love 2 strokes. Diesel and petrol. Some of the most fascinating engines and engineering ever created.
I could talk about detroit diesel for hours. I have an encyclopedic obsession absolute 8v92 and 12v92.
But the V-due is the one that got away and killed Bimota. One of the most interesting and innovative bike makers ever.
The SB8R is one of my top 5 favourite bikes. Jap reliability with the absolutely gorgeous Italian style
If I win the lottery this weekend there are a DB5R and SB8R going into the garage. Both for sale in Oz now and both $40K
I have owned a 500 Pantah and a 900 Darmah (AKA Drama). They both had a well deserved reputation as ‘enthusiast’ bikes… You spent as much time working on them as you did riding them.
I went back to UJMs (Universal Japanese Machines) for over a decade. At least I knew that I could get up in the morning: fuel on, choke on; it would start and I could go for a ride.
Until the 1098 came along and with that Italian design & style plus German (Audi) engineering - Perfection. I had to have one.
This discussion rocks! It’s like reading an ongoing conversation between Niels Bohr and Enrico Fermi. I don’t understand a word. And I’m not interested enough to fill the blanks on my own. Yet somehow ignorance enhances the awe. Pray continue!
i’ll explain a little, for the sake of non-2 stroke nerds
For years, the best way to make TONS of power and keep weight to a minimum was to make a bike, 2 cycle engine powered. Moto GP and a great deal of road bikes could keep up with much larger capacity 4 stroke bikes due to the light weight and massive power
The moto gp bikes in the 500 class were making 200BHP in the early 90s. this is insane.
they werent without issues though, reliability mainly, narrow powerband (sometimes less than 1000RPM) fuel consumption and later on, emissions.
2 strokes are filthy things, needing oil in the fuel mixed to provide cylinder lubrication,
Now for years, they were ALL (petrol engined for this explanation) on carbs. finicky to set up, perfect when used but only efficient at precisely one point.
the Holy grail, would have been a Direct injection 2 stroke, which was thought to be impossible due to the cylinder design and the programming needed to smooth it out through the rev range and widen the powerband and allow the engine to run a ton cleaner. However, Bimota partially cracked it with the 500cc V-due. but it never had the funding to be perfected, so Bimota, ■■■■ themselves, sold them anyway and ran out of money anyway. the first bikes were plagued with fuelling and reliability issues, so in order to sell the remaining production run, they ripped off the FI system and installed Carbs. meaning in practicality, that all the features were stripped away and the bikes couldnt be sold in the US or any other Euro 3 (I think) stamped country.
this Killed any hope of development of the FI system and effectively ended ALL modern 2 stroke production except for small scooters etc.
I was just about to mention what a crime against visual design that exhaust is. I am sure they needed a certain geometry for the two-stroke, another fun fact about those engines!
Honestly, it always was a technical dead end but it is amazing how far they stretched it.
If it wasnt for emissions regulations, it could have gone a great deal further. But 4 stroke tech naturally caught up and in many ways, surpassed the strokers.
But 210 bhp in 1993 from a 500…incredibly impressive. They did like to go bang with alarming frequency though. Love them
Mazda RX-3 Coupe. The very first one in New Zealand. She took the train to Auckland so she could pick it up there and drive it back to Wanganui (a full days drive in those days).
) in an Rgv250 Vg22 frame. This was featured in the magazine
If I win the lottery this weekend there are a DB5R and SB8R going into the garage. Both for sale in Oz now and both $40K
