Post-Sale Update: After 19 bids, this Bimota Tesi 3D Limited Edition Concept did not meet reserve at $25,501.
11-7 Update: Despite an ending bid of $28,600, this Bimota Tesi 3D has been relisted. Find it here on eBay with bidding back up to $21,100 and the reserve not yet met.
We’ve been waiting a while to featured the Bimota Tesi 3D, and for good reason. Just look at that front suspension! Regular readers know the story of Bimota, and their penchant of building distinctive bikes around established powerplants from other manufacturers – over the last few years it’s been primarily Ducati engines. That trend continued with the Tesi, an incredible-looking bike that features hub steering up front – this bike has swingarms in the front and rear.
Using the 1079cc L-Twin Ducati engine, Bimota used high-spec components and carbon fiber all over the place, helping to keep dry weight down to 370 pounds. There’s nothing else like it on the road. The name Tesi comes about because this motorcycle was actually the designer’s (Pierlugi Marconi) Mechanical Engineering thesis – on paper, at least, there are technical advantages to hub-centric steering. The simplified story here is that hub-centric steering completely isolates braking forces from suspension travel, which should improve mechanical performance of both aspects. Those benefits haven’t seemed to pay off in the real world just yet, though. MSRP on the Concept bikes (like this one) was $38,400, and we’ll be curious to see how close this auction price gets.
Separating the braking forces from the suspension travel, on paper motorcycle’s with hub-center steering have a significant mechanical advantage over their traditional counterparts, in reality though they have failed to live up to the hype on the track.
This specific Bimota Tesi 3D is one of the Limited Edition “Concept” bikes. Only 29 were made, and this is number 21. It looks to be in great shape, and it’s being offered with less than 800 miles by the original owner.
Find this Bimota Tesi 3D for sale here on eBay with bidding already up to $23,097 in California.
