Bimota BB1 Repairs Underway

Finally, an update on my Bimota BB1: A couple of weeks after I posted about the accident, I was contacted by the driver's insurance company about the accident. As it turns out, she did have insurance, she just didn't give me the right information, and refused to respond to my phone messages. Long story short, the insurance folks agreed it was not my fault, and they are paying for the medical bills and the repairs to the bike.

Unlike repairs to a more current model actually sold in the US by dealerships, where you just drop the bike off at the dealership and let them do all the legwork, it was up to me to locate parts, decals, and a painter. The really difficult part was finding the original graphics decals. From the Bimota mail list that I'm on, I was able to find a company down in Australia that had made a decal set for a BB1 in the past. I got the decals in December and they're nearly perfect. One for the left side needs to be modified and remade, but I'm hoping someone local can do that for me. I was able to find a shift lever through through my friend Bob Steinbugler, a Bimota dealer/historian in Raleigh, NC. I discovered that the billet aluminum footpeg mount was slightly bent, so I will try to straighten that out by heating it and applying some mild force (i.e. carefully beating it with a hammer without denting the aluminum). The only non-stock cosmetic feature of the bike is that the original mirrors are gone and have been replaced with CRG bar-end mirrors (this was done before I owned the bike). I was able to find a replacement for the damaged left-side mirror online (CRG is down near Monterey).

A fellow customer at my local Aprilia/KTM/Bimota dealership (Scuderia West in San Francisco) referred me to a really reputable painter in Livermore, Frank Zucchi (FZ Restoration) and he's started the work. As of a couple of weeks ago, the bodywork had been stripped and prepped for priming. Now here's an example of excellent customer service: Frank emailed me a status update complete with photos of the work in process, totally of his own volition. How many places would bother to do that? Hopefully I'll get another update from him this week.

Here are a few pics of the prepped bodywork:

This is what the bike looks like without its bodywork. It's actually a really cool machine underneath the covers:

I'm hoping the bike will be ready to ride sometime in February. I'll post an update after the next stage of repairs.

Don't ride a rare bike to work

I just learned a hard lesson the week before last - don't ride a rare, irreplaceable bike to work! I was on my way to the office on my newly-acquired 1996 Bimota BB1 Supermono on a sunny Tuesday morning, when all of a sudden a car changed lanes right into me. This was on I-238 between I-580 and I-880 where they're doing construction and there's no shoulder, just a temporary concrete divider. It happened so fast that I had almost no time to react, and the car hit my right side, knocking me straight towards the concrete divider. I managed to veer away from that but the bike went completely out of control (even though I couldn't have been going more than 35mph) and finally fell down on its left side. My helmet never even hit the pavement but I got some nasty bruises on my right thigh, left knee, right forearm, and both hands. Of course I was wearing full protective gear so there was no road rash. I'm lying on the pavement and the driver of the car stopped behind me, got out, ran up and asked if I was ok, then started apologizing, saying she didn't see me.

Eventually the paramedics and CHP arrived, and the paramedics insisted on strapping me to a backboard and taking me to the ER in an ambulance even though I had been walking around when they arrived. I should have just refused to go, there was nothing wrong with me other than some bruises. My bike got towed away, and I am sure I could have ridden it home even though the shift lever was broken.

Oh, and here's the really good part - the insurance information I was given by the other driver is invalid! Perfect. Add insult to injury. Thank you very much.

Here are a few pictures of the damage. It looks minor, but there's no way to get replacement bodywork, or even the decals for a full paint job. I'm trying to get a shift lever as it's the same one used on a few other Bimota models (you can see where it is broken off in the second picture). It might take some time to find a painter who can restore this to its original look. I may be able to get custom decals made too, at a cost. The only lucky thing is that the bodywork is not plastic, it's fiberglass, so it can be repaired.

Had to have it

Being a long-time Bimota fan, I've always lusted for their only BMW-based model, the BB1, fondly known as the "Supermono". This bike was made from 1995 to 1997, and only 371 of them were made. It was never imported to the US, so the rare few that are in the US are grey-market. The bike is extremely light, and is powered by the Rotax-built single-cylinder 650cc water-cooled engine that powered the early models of the BMW F-650. In stock form, the engine is rather unexciting, delivering a whopping 48hp at the crank. But I just love the look of this bike.

One of the more interesting features of the Supermono is that the fuel tank is not above the engine like on most bikes, but below it! Yep, what's normally the belly pan on other bikes is the fuel tank on this one. This keeps the center of gravity extremely low and makes the bike so flick-able it feels almost like a bicycle.

Back in August, I saw a post on a Bimota mail list I'm subscribed to by a guy down in the LA area who was selling his Supermono. This one caught my eye because not only was it in excellent condition, but also had a pumped-up engine built by Ron Wood (a well-known Rotax 650 engine guy) that delivered 60hp to the rear wheel. With dual Keihen FCR flatslide carbs, a ported head, high-compression piston, and custom exhaust, this one sounded like a dream. I emailed the seller and got a bunch of photos of the bike, and became pretty certain that I was going to buy it.

I couldn't get down to LA for a month or so but he said that was ok as long as I sent him a small deposit. Finally the weekend of September 7, I drove down to LA with my empty bike trailer behind my gas-guzzler Jeep (sorry, I only own it for towing bikes to the track and such). As soon as I saw the bike and heard it start up I was hooked. We loaded it up and I wrote a check for the balance and headed home.

I took this thing for a ride the next day and it was a total kick - vibrates like hell, sounds fantastic, and is surprisingly quick. It's so light that it's effortless to turn. My 800-mile round-trip drive to LA to pick up the bike was definitely worth it. No buyer's remorse on this deal!

Back on the Track

Well, I finally got back out on the track after 2 1/2 years. My last track time was in February 2006 at Buttonwillow Raceway. This time was at a track I had never seen, Reno-Fernley Raceway in Fernley, NV, about 40 miles southeast of Reno. Three friends and I piled into a truck pulling an RV and made the long journey to the track for the weekend of August 9-10. It just so happens that my 53^rd birthday was August 10, so this was sort of a birthday gift to myself. I took my trusty '98 Ducati 748, mainly because I'm very comfortable on that bike on the track, but also because I have full track trim for it - fairing stay, race bodywork, etc. I got some Dunlop slicks mounted up for the weekend too.

Fernley is a pretty technical track. On Saturday we ran only the upper part, only 1.8 miles but with 18 turns. A few of the turns are pretty bumpy and challenging. It's not real fast either - I don't think I ever got out of 4^th gear - and I reached 4^th only on one section where you could get up some speed between turns 16 & 18. This is what that part of the track looks like:

After the first couple of sessions I was feeling pretty discouraged, I felt completely out of sorts on the track. Then, in the third session something clicked and it all came back to me. By the end of the day I was having a blast and getting around pretty well. This was a fun turn (I'm the one on the left):

On Sunday, we got to run the full 3-mile course, with 30 turns plus a nice 1/2-mile front straight:

Wow, what a blast! There's a set of kinks - left, right, left, right - at the end of the straight that you can fly through if you take the correct line and have the cajones for it. Then after a few more turns is a spot they call the Hoot-n-Holler Hill Climb - a very steep hill with 4 turns that you can take pretty fast. Of all the tracks I've ridden, this is the biggest elevation change I've ever seen. This is what we look like coming up the hill. Look very closely, you can see the top of my friend Mark Ellsworth's helmet just above mine, and you can see part of his left shoulder. He's right on my tail - I love this picture because you can't even see his bike:

Overall, I'd have to say my return to the track was everything I'd hoped for - I loved being back out there.

Keep the shiny side up!

Fibula Plate Removal

On Thursday February 14^th, I had the second of two hardware removal surgeries, this one to remove the fibula plate and its 9 screws. I was back to lying on the couch with the leg up on pillows covered with ice packs for 4 days, then on crutches for another 9 days. On Wednesday the 27^th they removed the stitches and replaced them with strips of tape. I went into the doctor's office on crutches, and walked out carrying them under my arm. It hurts a little when I walk, but that will get better over time. Removal of the fibula plate was a little more invasive because there is so much muscle they had to move out of the way to get to the bone. They also sawed off a shard of bone that was sticking out and digging into my calf muscle, so once the soreness from the surgery is gone there should be no pain. When I talked to Stacy, the PA who has assisted on each of my 4 surgeries, she said that when she was digging around in my leg feeling for the bone shard, it nearly pierced her surgical glove when she found it, as it was really sharp. No wonder it was causing me pain!

Here are a couple of pics of what was removed. It looks rather wimpy compared to the hefty plate that held my tibia together.

I'll spare you having to look at any external post-surgery pictures, as some people can't handle seeing stitches. Suffice it to say that it took an 8-inch incision to get that plate out so there were a lot of stitches.

Here are a couple of x-rays taken the day they removed the stitches. The holes in the tibia are faint, as they've now had 4 months to repair. The holes in the fibula are pretty scary, just because it's such a small bone and the holes large relative to the size of the bone. I guess that's why they told me no activity with any impact beyond normal walking for another 8 weeks. It wouldn't take much to snap the fibula in its current state.

Hardware removal surgery

On Thursday October 11, I had the first of two hardware removal surgeries, this one to remove the tibia plate and its 14 screws. This hardware had been in my leg since April 8, 2006 (see here). I was on crutches until yesterday, and although my leg is still a bit swollen, bruised, and sore at the incision sites, today I can walk without any pain in the bone. I am thrilled to no end - prior to this, every single step I took hurt, causing me to limp. Now I can walk without any limp at all.

Here are a couple of pics of what was removed:

I had the stitches removed Wednesday, October 24, and talked to the surgeon about the fibula plate removal. I had hoped that this could be done next month. Unfortunately, the doctor wants to wait a few months before doing that, so I have to live with those stupid screws on the outside of my ankle until probably February. Being right on the ankle bone and right under the skin, they really do cause a lot of irritation, especially if I try to wear hiking boots or my motorcycle riding boots. I have to get creative with padding to make it possible to ride over long distances. Here's an X-ray of my leg with the tibia plate out. You can see all the little holes in the bone where the screws were. 

Benelli?

Benelli is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer that was formed in 1911, and produced its first complete motorcycle in 1921. Over the years, they went through numerous changes, creating quite a storied history. In the late 1970's they began to lose market share to the big Japanese motorcycle companies (Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki) and eventually shut down production on their motorcycles. Their last motorcycle before the shutdown was the Sei 900, an impressive 6-cylinder machine.

Then, in 1995, the company began its rebirth under the new leadership of Andrea Merloni. In early 2001, plans for a new machine, the Tornado 900 Tre, were announced. I saw photos of the bike on the internet, and instantly fell in love with it. In 2002, came the official launch of the superbike. Australian rider Peter Goddard raced this bike in the World Superbike series. I was lucky enough to witness this machine howling around the track at Laguna Seca that year at the World Superbike event. Seeing and hearing it in person was fantastic!

I finally took delivery of my 2005 Benelli Tornado 900 Tre in October of 2005. Shortly thereafter, I was asked by the editor of CityBike magazine in San Francisco to write an article about it (there were only a handful of the bikes in the US at the time - mine was the first in northern California). Here's a link to my article. There, you can read all about the trials and tribulations I went through to eventually own this beautiful machine.