REPORTS from Italy suggest that Bimota – which has been dormant for some time – has closed the doors of its Rimini factory for good.
The old factory is said to be empty and the signage has been removed, while stocks of parts are said to have been relocated to a nearby warehouse. The firm’s current owners are said to have assembled the most recent Bimotas at a shop somewhere in Swizerland from existing parts stockpiles. When those stocks run dry, it’s not clear what route the company’s owners will take. While there’s a chance that new parts, even new models, will emerge, it seems unlikely that the firm’s ties with its original Rimini roots will be retained.
Of course, some would argue that Bimota’s real roots withered when Massimo Tamburini (the ‘Ta’ of BiMoTa and the engineering genius behind the original bikes to wear the badge) left the company. He later went on to create the Ducati 916 and MV Agusta F4, which perhaps hints at what Bimota might have achieved if he’d stayed on board.
However, even after Tamburini’s departure Bimota achieved some success, right up to the disaster that was the 1997 Vdue two-stroke (pictured). That ambitious project that was intended to see Bimota build its own engines as well as its own frames ended in tears when the direct-injected stroker proved to have insurmountable problems. Bimota went bust shortly after the turn of the millennium.
It was revived in 2003 and has created interesting bikes but never reached anything approaching its former glory. Under the current owners, Bimota has recently lost another design genius – Pierluigi Marconi – who left the firm earlier this year. Now its future is once again looking grim.
However, if past experience is anything to go by, it would be foolish to write Bimota off permanently. There always seems to be another investor standing by, wallet at the ready, to give the firm another chance.
