Bimota BB3
All the decent racers here at Fast Bikes were busy so I took the opportunity to pop over to Oulton Park in Cheshire and pretend to be one for the day. Now, not only have I raced a BMW S1000RR, the engine and electronics donor for the BB3, but I have also raced an actual BB3 at Donington Park, so I had an idea of what I was in for when I cocked a leg over the modern TT racer for the kick-off session on track.
The first thing you notice on this ’3 is the oversized and slightly square TT tank, the rear of which gently digs into the top of your legs when you’re perched on its high seat. The saddle’s angled quite severely forwards so between rides when you’re just sat chewing the fat with your mates you will find yourself holding onto the handlebars to hold your gonads from taking an unnecessary squashing. On a lighter note, as soon as you spark up the motor there is a distinctive Beemer snarl that settles to a very linear sounding drone. There’s no lumpy revving or burbling; it’s a constant hum, but a hum that rasps vigorously into life with each blip thanks to the granny frightening Pipewerx exhaust fitted to Ben’s example.
The vigour of the exhaust note is a perfect reflection of the power delivery. On the full power ‘slick’ mode the drive is eye-wateringly ballistic. It’s not an engine that makes you feel as though you need to keep the revs sky high at all times because there just seems to be bags of torque whenever you need it; in fact quite often too much torque. There was more than one occasion on the ’3 when the rear tyre wasn’t quite ready for my ham-fisted attempts to drive out of Lodge, the last turn, and if it hadn’t have been for the super sharp traction control catching it just before it reached the point of no return I may well have been exiting stage top. I didn’t bother telling Ben I had almost written off his Italian stallion countless times, because I reasoned why worry him? And I’m sure I can get away with mentioning it now too, because I'm fairly confident he can’t read.
As well as saving your bacon the tech on this bike will make you faster. I suppose that’s why Bimota chose to utilise the Beemer’s electrics package. It’s ace. While a quickshifter is a massive benefit wherever or however you’re riding (not to mention trick), seamless down shifts and automatic throttle blips really start to make a whole lot more sense on track, especially on the BB3 because it feels like it’s supposed to be raced. The Bimota has such a different feel to the Beemer that it’s robbed the engine and loom from. Once the damp patches had dried out after the first session and I could start to push, I felt like the bike and I were becoming closer. Not romantically, obviously. I’ve got a girlfriend. Like my girlfriend, the more at one I became with the BB3 the less it tried to kill me and the more I was able to manipulate it into doing whatever I wanted it to.
I soon learnt that it’s not a bike that responds well to less than committed riding. It likes strict orders to follow. Brake hard and late. Don’t ask it to turn; tell it to turn; make it turn. The more I rode it the more I could see exactly what Bimota had tried to do. Take an awesome motor and electronics system and put it in an awesome, race focused, handmade chassis, exactly like they did with the world beating YB4 30 years previously.