Fipo. :]
Mercy.
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In March 2001 Bimota was declared insolvent - the nnouncements followed several months of bitter negotiation and legal wranglings at the Factory in Rimini, Italy in a vain attempt to try and keep the company afloat.
With the closing of the of the Bimota factory , 25 years of history came to an abrupt halt.
Bimota have always been unique in that they have specialised in combining the best of Italian (style, looks and chassis) with the best of Japanese (engine, reliability and mechanical performance).
The 500 Vdue was possibly the most interesting and original motorcycle to come out of the Predappio Factory - the first time Bimota had truly designed and built a complete bike from scratch using their own design, engine and chassis (the engine was actually built for Bimota by Moto Marini) it was also probably the fundamental cause behind the collapse of Bimota!
The attraction of a large bore two-stroke coupled with amazing claims to satisfy any emmisions ruling anywhere in the world (and in particular California) made the Vdue into a very unique piece of history - Bimota had high hopes for major sales to the USA.
The fact is, that when it worked, the injection system which enabled this made the Vdue a truly remarkable and historic bike, unfortunately as history shows it just did'nt come together and ultimately Bimota were forced to take back every bike and refund the unhappy customers accordingly.
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This brings us to 2003 - the entire Vdue part of the Bimota sell-off has been purchased recently by an Italian collector who, armed with 3 mechanics (one of whom worked for Bimota originally) is able to create fully usable and working versions of the Vdue using a Dell'Orto carburettor conversion kit as well as some sensible mods to the engine which have been developed following a season of racing in the 'One Make' Vdue Race Series' staged in Italy in 2001.
Why the Vdue ? To many, myself included, the ultimate motorcyle has to be a large capacity 2-stroke. This is possibly because like you, I grew up with RD250's and RD350's in a time and at an age where the motorcycle represented just one thing - FREEDOM !!
The smell of Castrol R in the wind and sight of tailights dissappearing in a blue haze still comes to me in my dreams !
The RG500 and YPVS500 were produced at a time when suspension technology was in it's infancy and the result, although I would still love to own one, is a very dated looking motorcycle with pretty appalling handling, (by today's standards).
The Vdue is effectively a Grand Prix bike in a box, the engine with modifications and carburettors now works and the handling is superb. It weighs virtually the same as an RS250 and yet kicks out double the horsepower - it is a unique and never to be repeated bike.
That's why I bought one!