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RIDDEN: Bimota Tesi 2D
Written by: Neale Bayly   
05/17/2007
Charlotte, NC
 
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Inside my head Alan Wilson's mellow South African accent is narrating the unfolding Miller Motorsports racetrack with background music provided by the Bimota Tesi's Desmodue engine booming through its Leo Vinci exhaust. As the bike flicks right, left, then left again through turn four I finally find the courage to hold the throttle wide open. I am following track designer Wilson's invisible line of perfection, and the Tesi is glued to this perfect arc. Totally in its element, the Bimota's mota's electronic tachometer millimeters from bumping the rev limiter, I get it right, and using every ounce of power the air-cooled twin can give blast out onto the straight. A brief speedometer check shows 178 kmph, which is a good improvement on last session's 164 kmph best. The trick is to charge out of turn two and keep the throttle pinned, putting all my faith in the hub-center steering front end and the super sticky Pirelli tires.

Peeking up above the brake marker cones, the snow capped Wasatch Mountains stand proudly and majestically an impenetrable wall of granite. And with the late afternoon sun lighting the brilliant powder white snow it is hard to remember riding in a more beautiful environment. The thought is quickly relegated as the brake markers arrive. Waiting till the last minute, I throw out the parachute, scrubbing speed for the tightest left-hand corner on the West track. With no dive from the front end, braking can be ridiculously late and held well into the turn, the transition to full lean little more than a thought. The Tesi has found the perfect line through here too, and no sooner than we are tipped in it's hard on the gas as the diminutive Italian beauty aces the technical corner sequence, thumping its 90 horses through the rear tire as we are catapulted
toward turn seven. The satisfaction of getting this right has me positively beaming inside my helmet and lunging for the tight right-hander, while taking full advantage of the Tesi's ability to tighten its line at will. I am also enjoying being able to hammer the throttle and lay all the Tesi's power to the floor with impunity. It just doesn't feel like it is
going to spin the back wheel, and this sense of security alone has got to be worth a couple of seconds a lap, due to the ability to exit the corners so hard on the gas.

Getting a chance to ride the $60,000 Tesi is something akin to having a crush on an elegant, sophisticated super-model who for some bizarre reason elects to join me for a date. It's impossible to control my nerves. Every stammered sentence is a fumbled gear change, every awkward silence a bad corner entry, as each abrupt throttle response and botched brake application feels like a slurped drink or a sticky glob of food on my shirt. As the laps unwind, the fear of crashing this elegant, refined and stunningly beautiful assortment of components melts a little the way it feels when you come back from the bathroom to find your date still sitting at the table. And, by the third session out on the Miller Motorsports Park she is laughing at my jokes, and it looks like we will be going out again. This only makes things marginally better, as my nerves are still frayed, but with the sun out in full force and the track now totally dry, after an early rainstorm, it is time to step things up.

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