BIMOTA TESI YB The Oddest Ball Of All

Tesi means ‘thesis’ in Italian, and that’s how Bimota’s remarkable alternative motorcycle started out, as a combined effort between the company’s then-chief designer Federico Martini, and two Bologna University postgraduate students, Roberto Ugolini and Pierluigi Marconi, who spent six months during 1981-82 working in the Rimini factory as part of a work/study programme.

The hub-centreTesi design they created there, based on a Kawasaki GPz550 engine, represented the design thesis for their IMechE mechanical engineering doctorate course, and their university’s computer was employed in the preliminary design work, on what was the world’s first motorcycle with hydraulically-operated centre hub steering.

The first runningTesi prototype appeared soon after Marconi joined Bimota full-time in 1983 andwas the focus of much attention when it was unveiled at theMilan Show that year. Powered by aVF400 Honda V4 engine, theTesi1 was a street bike that covered several thousand

Words: Alan Cathcart Photos: Phil Masters