A Rare Thrill
THE OPPORTUNITY TO RIDE AN early Bimota had been a rare thrill and the HB2 had very much lived up to expectations. The machine created around Honda’s four-cylinder CB900F engine by design maestro Massimo Tamburini had been sleek, fast, and packed with advanced features, as is to be expected of the small Italian firm that had already established a mighty reputation when this bike was built in 1982.
Even so, on riding the Bimota decades later, I didn’t fully appreciate just how great it was until I got home and began looking through a pile of old motorcycle magazines. It wasn’t the one article I managed to find about the HB2 itself that was so revealing, even though that story was filled with almost unqualified praise; phrases such as “perfect balance” and “most incredible, exhilarating and beautiful experience on two wheels”.
No, what really made me appreciate the Bimota’s class was being reminded of the Japanese production bikes that were the best on the
