Motorcycles

Bimota gets weird with hub-steered, supercharged adventure tourer

Bimota gets weird with hub-steered, supercharged adventure tourer
A lighter center-hub steering system with a 35-degree lock-to-lock steering angle and height-adjustable suspension
A lighter center-hub steering system with a 35-degree lock-to-lock steering angle and height-adjustable suspension
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A lighter center-hub steering system with a 35-degree lock-to-lock steering angle and height-adjustable suspension
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A lighter center-hub steering system with a 35-degree lock-to-lock steering angle and height-adjustable suspension
Twin-swingarm hub-steered chassis
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Twin-swingarm hub-steered chassis
Hard luggage? Sure, why not?
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Hard luggage? Sure, why not?
Fancy, lined luggage boxes
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Fancy, lined luggage boxes
A center stand.
5/10
A center stand.
From this angle, you can almost convince yourself it's any other Bimota adventure bike...
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From this angle, you can almost convince yourself it's any other Bimota adventure bike...
Beefy and barrel-chested, as is the style of the time
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Beefy and barrel-chested, as is the style of the time
The Tera is steered via a linkage that goes up from the wheel to the steering head
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The Tera is steered via a linkage that goes up from the wheel to the steering head
That linkage under the engine goes back to actuate the suspension, since the bike's two shocks are next to each other in front of the rear wheel
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That linkage under the engine goes back to actuate the suspension, since the bike's two shocks are next to each other in front of the rear wheel
A normal, if fairly beefy adventure bike from the back... But where's the forks?
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A normal, if fairly beefy adventure bike from the back... But where's the forks?
View gallery - 10 images

Bimota has a whole new design for its wacky hub-steered front end, nearly doubling the steering range, and it's celebrating this achievement with one of the strangest production motorcycles of the year: a 200-horsepower supercharged adventure bike.

Quietly unveiled at EICMA in Milan earlier this month, where Bimota had a small section within parent company Kawasaki's exhibit, the Bimota Tera debuts a remarkable new height-adjustable double-swingarm chassis, which the company has been working on for several years.

It's a much lighter and visually less obtrusive interpretation of the center-hub steering concept Bimota has made famous, most recently in its hideous Tesi H2 superbike. The Tesi H2 shares the Tera's engine – the supercharged 1,000cc engine from Kawasaki's H2 cruise missile – but while it also runs a swingarm at each end, the steering system is completely different. Take a look:

Bimota Tera | Tesi Height Adjustment System |

Where the Tesi H2 handles steering via rods and linkages going horzintally back from the front wheel then back up under the bodywork to the handlebars, the Tera chassis gets it done much more directly. A steering linkage comes straight down from the steering head to grab and turn the hub, with brake calipers attached and a pair of knee joints above the wheel to soak up travel as the suspension moves up and down.

Speaking of suspension, it's fully-adjustable, nitrogen-charged Ohlins TTX 36 gear. But – and we may be wrong here – it seems like both the Tera's shocks are in front of the rear wheel, with the front shock being connected to the front swingarm via a linkage running under the engine – which incidentally is the only direct connection between the front and rear parts of the chassis; the engine itself is the central structure of the bike.

It's a bizarre-looking setup, but it reduces unsprung mass, increases suspension travel up to 145 and 165 mm (5.7 and 6.5 inches) at the front and rear end, respectively (that's with the optional semi-active Marzocchi suspension), gives you all the steering/braking/suspension separation benefits of a hub-steered bike and helps keep the wheelbase down to 1,445 mm (56.9 in) – nearly six inches shorter than the Multistrada V4 RS, as Cycle World points out.

The Tera is steered via a linkage that goes up from the wheel to the steering head
The Tera is steered via a linkage that goes up from the wheel to the steering head

It also nearly doubles the side-to-side steering lock available, going from a measly 19 degrees in the Tesi H2 to 35 degrees in the Tera. That's still fairly narrow compared to the telescopic fork world, but it's a big step forward for Bimota's hub-steered designs.

And the Tera chassis has one other trick up its sleeve: the bike's ride height can be adjusted by as much as 30 mm (1.2 in). That could come in handy, since adventure machines can get so tall they're out of reach for shorter riders. The Tera's seat height as standard is 820 mm (32.3 in), but we're not sure what the minimum height is.

Other than that, well, it's an adventure tourer – albeit certainly one better suited to the road than the dirt, if my recollection of that wild and wicked engine is anything to go by. Kawasaki supplies all the electronics you'd expect, there's a 22-liter (5.81-gal) tank, there's hard luggage options – extravagantly lined, naturally – and a dirty big screen.

A normal, if fairly beefy adventure bike from the back... But where's the forks?
A normal, if fairly beefy adventure bike from the back... But where's the forks?

There's also a center stand, which kinda blows my mind on a bike that's both hub-steered and supercharged. Yeah, this is your practical hub-steered, supercharged Italian exotic, the one you can work on in the shed.

Bimota hasn't yet released pricing or availability information, but look; the Tesi H2 costs somewhere around US$72,000, and this bike's newer and fancier. So if you see somebody banging one of these around a rutted-out fire trail, stay close; you may well be looking at somebody that's about to throw a nice house deposit on its side.

Source: Bimota

View gallery - 10 images
4 comments
4 comments
ClauS
All this effort for a motorcycle with chain drive. Unless you're a surper-sport or for some obscure reason you really need a chain, go for a belt or shaft drive.
itsKeef
ClauS. belt? ...shaft ?. because in 1855 JK Starley understood that one can't argue with the efficient 104 + metal links working together. The Tour de France has traveled many many miles on such a set up.
Lucky2BHere
What would we have to gawk over if not for companies like Bimota?! Interesting entry into this segment. I'll second the choice of a chain as questionable, and I'll throw in the short wheelbase...and resultant lack of room for a passenger. Yes, today's chains work rather well. But on long trips where you're cracking off 500-plus miles/day, they are simply not convenient in less-than-sunny-and-dry conditions (if you plan on not replacing them often). Besides, who in their right mind wants to pop the bike up on that center stand every other day to clean and lube (like you're SUPPOSED to), not to mention find a place to power wash all the grit from it before you do it. But, that decision speaks to the decision related to the relative lack of room. If you're not going far, and not going with anyone else or a whack of luggage, you don't need the room, and you won't need that shaft drive. This is a very interesting, and I'm sure, satisfying day-trip conveyance worthy of a few onlooker conversations. Very cool rig, but should be considered a short-sport-adventure bike.
MQ
- lol, re the belt/chain debate, the reason chains are remaining on race bicycles are due to the ease of lightweight gear shifting. Not a lot of external cog swapping occurs in a motorbike chain set..

That being, dinosaurs love the status quo.... This bike is space age in everything it appears, but the transmission...

Good to have laughs.