Happiness is a hub-centre front end: Bimota’s stunning $36,000 TESI 3D

Leaping to near the top of the list of motorcycles I’d desperately love to ride but probably never will is this beauty - Bimota’s TESI 3D, which we spotted through a drool-proof cabinet in Tokyo.

The Italian company built its name in the 70s and 80s by taking the engines out of the day’s top sportsbikes and housing them in extremely lightweight, gorgeous alloy trellis frames with top-rate running gear and superior handling. But how could Bimota apply the same philosophy to, say, a 2008 GSX-R1000 that is already feather-light, and equipped for extremes of cornering that few riders can really claim to explore?

Most of the recent Bimota range relies on exceptional styling and desirability to justify the price premium - but the TESI is different. It’s one of the only commercially available motorcycles you can buy that features a hub-centre front end. 

Why would you want one of those? Well, the conventional telescopic fork you see on pretty much every other motorcycle (some recent BMWs being a notable exception) is a highly evolved version of a very old and intrinsically flawed concept. Putting it simply, your bike’s forks have to deal with weight transfer, braking forces and the job of keeping the tyre pressed onto a bumpy road surface - and they do these separate jobs all along the same axis.

We’re all so used to dealing with the inadequacies of forks that most riders have internalised our ways of getting around their foibles; we understand that we can’t try to tip the bike into a corner while we’re still hard on the brakes, because it just won’t want to turn while the forks are compressed.

But hub-centre steering arrangements, effectively acting like a front swingarm, are able to separate those forces. Braking forces get shot back horizontally into the frame, allowing the swingarm to continue dealing with bumps with no reduced travel or efficiency - and the steering geometry is able to remain exactly the same throughout the range of front swingarm travel, so no matter what the suspension is doing, the steering remains light and responsive.So with the TESI you’ve got yourself a motorcycle that suffers no dive under braking, that you can plough right into a corner apex hard on the brakes without losing any steering agility. Imagine that… I can’t, which is why I’d so love to ride one. Anyone want to throw me a key?

The 3D is the third evolution of the TESI project, and features a Ducati 1079cc dual-spark engine. Injection is by Magneti Marelli, the underhanging radial brake calipers are from Brembo and the suspension is similar at the front and rear - fully adjustable monoshocks suspending outrageously sexy Meccano-like swingarms. The front steering lock has been increased since the 2D, so it should be less of a handful to U-turn for those lucky buggers that have ridden both. Dry weight is a svelte 168kg, and the design is as droolworthy as anything else on the market, if you turn a blind eye to the fat trashcan exhausts that won’t make it out the dealer’s door anyway.

Bimota are releasing a limited number of TESI 3Ds into the American market, at a price of just under US$36,000 - which you’d have to say isn’t bad value for one of the truly unique riding experiences out there. Here’s an interesting track test from US Cycle World to whet your appetite.