1-17-17 Update: This bike was pulled off eBay, and reader Henry V notes that it is now back up for sale with an asking price of $35,000 here on Craigslist.
The V-Due is one of the most interesting things that ever came out of Bimota. It came out to tremendous fan-fare as the first two-stroke with fuel injection – yielding a greater power to weight ratio than anything else available on the market. But the fuel injection was awful, and the bikes were incredibly difficult to ride. Combine that with a large number of seized engines, and this bike was an unfortunate disaster. That’s what makes this bike special – it’s one of “three known V-Dues that reliably run on direct injection”.
Though the execution was utter garbage, the theory behind this bike was incredible. At a time when everyone else was moving away from 2-strokes, Bimota wanted to release an absolute world beater. They were going to get around some of the emissions issues by utilizing fuel injection, and it also featured trick components like a dry clutch and race-inspired cassette transmission. But then the public actually got a chance to ride it, and as Visordown put it, “Within 200 yards it became apparent to most UK testers that the V-Due was virtually unrideable.” This bike is worth learning more about – but I’ll defer you to OddBike for a fantastic article explaining how this bike “killed” Bimota.
According to the seller, this bike has been gone through so that it runs like Bimota originally wanted it to. However, the electronic odometer apparently resets itself? It currently shows 579 miles, 110 of which came from the current owner. But the original owner claims to have done 1,200 miles in one weekend. It’s a weird flaw and a weird story, but sadly with Bimota’s reputation for this bike it’s almost believable. The seller will include all the original parts, factory stand, original brochure, and a cover.
Find this V-Due for sale in San Juan Capistrano, California with bidding up to $10,550 and the reserve not yet met