Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Has anyone else seen the bimota tesi 2d? If not i recomend looking at it, i think it is the coolest freakin thing ive ever seen. It has a front swingarm instead of front forks. It is so sick looking. I would post a link but im too lazy to try and figure it out. I just googled bimota and found it. Anyone out ther lucky enough to own or ride one let me know how it feels.

Yeah, that is pretty cool looking.

You must be pretty lazy. Took me about 20 seconds to find this pic and post.

That's wacky.

keysman wrote:That's wacky.

But smokin' hot!

Duzzat thing go faster frontwards or backwards?

And how can you tell?

I'll take one. What was that other bike that made it to production with the front swingarm?

Just trying to figure out how this thing steers...

Looks like those red rods at the front are for steering and braking. You'd only need one for each, and the braking rod is probably really just a pipe holding a hose (see the translucent brake-fluid jug sticking up above the right handgrip?). They're asymmetric, maybe, as there might be another rod behind the bottom one; I don't see why not.

And you wouldn't have to be too fiddly about the steering control. Just have the rod push a cam that twists the front wheel a little bit to get a dihedral between it and the rear. Pick a maximum deflection for the handlebar and wheel, make the rod and cam do that, and be done with it. All of the control math goes out the window because the driver is the control system and humans are fully adaptable to this stuff. We put up with all manner of rake and trail anyway, so why be picky here? Start fiddling after people start deciding if it's "too this" or "too that".

Come to think of it, it would get tricky, because you have to twist the axle along with the wheel. And the brake mount, too. That swingarm is hiding a lot of stuff I want to see.

Man. Anyone know where there's a live hands-on version of one of these anywhere near Arizona?

Yeah, you steer w/ the pushrods.

It's got a Ducati 1000DS Engine (same as the Multistrada) and is probably the best handling motorcycle in the world due to the fact that the Geometry of the bike stays constant even under heavy braking. The frame components are machined from a solid block of aluminum.

You could own one for the low low price of $50,000 ...

Yamaha made a bike with a similar design, th GTS1000 http://www.motorbikes.be/en/Yamaha/1993/GTS%201000/

That's a small pic, but you can see the some of the same frame components. The GTS 1000 flopped because I think it was too 'weird' for most people, and they made it too heavy. However, by all accounts it is a very sweet handling bike. The difference between the Bimota and the Yamaha is the center hub steering

Take a look at that GTS again. (Click on the pic and it blows up real good.)

No fork.

The hub must connect to a swingarm on the port side (yoked to attach to both sides of the body, though).

And it's hilarious how the thing they plug in the body graphics is the "Omega Shaped Chassis Catalyzer". Whatever the f-bomb they mean by "catalyzer", they must really have loved it at corporate to promote a static body part over a cantilevered, single-sided front end...