Red Whale

[OTB]

One of the advantages of selling a lot of bikes is that I get to RIDE a lot of bikes. One of the disadvantages of selling a lot of bikes is that they aren't with me for very long.

Normally, I may only ride a bike for a few days or weeks. Often, I may only ride a bike one or twice, and once in a while I may take possession of a bike only to transport it and deliver it the same day.

And even rarer, I get a truly exceptional bike and get to ride the wheels off of it until a knowledgeable buyer comes along.

Most of you know that when it comes to bikes, I like to travel off the beaten path once in a while with rare, weird or just downright strange machinery. The Bimota SB6R I bought and shipped sight unseen from California is no exception.

The 1997 SB6R was the more evolved brother of the SB6, a raw, elemental motorcycle powered by a breathed-on 1995 1100 gsxr motor in a beam frame with Paioli carbon fiber forks and a lay-down Ohlins shock connected to the frame by a weird rising rate linkage. Both bikes are wide, compact and relatively low. They share the same beam frame and solid motor mount system which makes the motor a stressed member but allows vibration at certain RPMs.



Everything about the SB6R is top-notch; from the at-the-time-leading-edge jangly-button Brembo disk brakes to the wall-to-wall CF bodywork; Yep, every piece of bodywork, painted or not, is real hand-laid CF. From the front fender to the swoopy tank/seat monocoque unit which bolts directly to the frame, no metal subframe supporting it!

The bike fires right off and even though has EPA legal 85db factory silencers; they are MUCH louder than today's stock units sounding much more like LEO Vince aftermarket units. I can't imagine how loud the optional Ti straight-through Corse units were on this bike.

The SB6R is much more civilized than the original SB6..we dynoed both as we had a European SB6 at the shop being converted to EPA legal...the SB6 put out 138RWHP on our dyno which reads about 5% lower than others, and an honest-to-god 158RWHP for the SB6R. The SB6R has the same carbs, stock cams but a revised ignition curve and better sorted jetting than the fussy and prone-to-loading-up older SB6.

I don't normally ride the rare stuff much, not because of the value, but because if I drop it, parts are gonna be a booger to find. But I couldn't help myself; this thing had had a few nibbles but no bites all summer, I had the Columbus Day weekend off, the weather was going to be Perfect Fall and my wife wanted to spend it at the Autumn Glory Festival in Western MD. An alignment of the stars if you ask me.

I shed the 13 year-old Dunlops for some 2CT's, checked the fluids and loaded it into the Sprinter for the long ride up (had to take 2 dogs and a cat, otherwise I'd a ridden it.)

Sunday morning I got up early (5)at the cabin, snuck out with my gear and pushed the bike to the end of the driveway so I wouldn't wake my wife and the neighbors.


Ride report and more pics later...gotta go to work.......

[OTB]

Our place is up in the Blue Ridge mountains near Deep Creek lake. We're about 15 minutes from WV in any direction except North..go that way and you'll be in the Ohiopyle region of PA in 20 minutes...

In other words...it's all good to great roads, lots of elevation changes, everything from the wide high speed sweepers of New Germany to the to gnarliest, crumbling switchbacks of Savage River, with spotty seeps running out of the rock faces that border both sides of the roads.

You'll find it all in this area; gentle two lane bordered by rolling meadows one minute, and narrow, one lane paths through tunnels blasted out of solid rock the next. Roads running past man-made lakes and reservoirs, and then one of the wildest stretches of river anywhere; the "Yough"...class iv-v rapids that drop 3000 ft in fifteen miles


and the roads run right alongside.....

Great place for a great bike.

The bike fires off, is quite tractable right off the bottom, and pulls strongly till about 6800-7000 rpm where it pulls HARD...like in 07 R1 rear sliding leaving darkies front wheel coming up fast-hard. The bike feels like a cross between the fastest inline four you've ever ridden and a REALLY strong RC51.

The bike is wide like the RC, but lighter feeling. Bimota raced a few of these in WSB back in the day and finished mid-pack, but they marketed this bike as a "sport-tourer"....I dunno about that, as the seating is pretty extreme (this coming from a guy that thinks the DB4 is comfy) and I'd be afraid to throw a set of saddlebags over that sculpted tail section.

The stock seat is pretty good, but the pegs are high, the reach to the bars is far and the tank is wide. Perhaps if I were 30 years and 30 lbs lighter it would feel better.......

Brakes are the older Brembos, but they are ferocious, even by today's standards. I believe they are a high-carbon content steel; whatever they are the pads bite hard and now; care must be used on damp surfaces as I managed to slide the front a few times while crossing above mentioned seeps while braking for turns.

Even though the bike is based on the older GSXR1100 and a wide one, steering is light and neutral and you can trail brake without the bike wanting to stand up. The rear brake is a tiny thing and just the way I like it...weak and ineffectual for anything but settling the chassis mid-turn and coming to a low speed stop.

The bike comes equipped with a steering damper, but I never cranked it up as the bike always felt planted. There is a stretch of road back to my cabin that is a series of whoops through multiple turn esses that ends with a decreasing radius two-apex turn with a dip in the last apex with a short uphill straight. My old 954RR would wobble hard coming off that turn with any kind of vigor, the Duc SS gives a hard shake off the dip.... those lovely forks and Ohlins shock gave me a little bounce.....and that was it.....hard on the throttle I never had to back off.

These bikes are dangerous in that they encourage you to try MORE.. more throttle, more brake, more more more..............


Nice bike.

[Dave]

nice write up. i think that dyno is rather optimistic though

[OTB]

Actually. our runs 5% under most others....the stock gsxr ran long 2" headers of unequal length, the Bimota uses thinwall 2 3/8 equal length short system with collector (4-1-2)with much less restrictive dual mufflers and proper jetting and advance curve; the airbox is a huge thing with long tracts and a very large opening and came with a K&N unit, those changes alone would give a 10-12% bounce over the stock motor, which was very lean and had an advance curve set for emissions, not power to begin with.

Suzuki rated the 97 1100 156hp (most likely that was at the crank).

Our techs stock 98 (essentially the same bike as the 97 GSXR) puts down 141 HP at the RW on our dyno and the A/F curve is all over the place; lean on the bottom and fat on the top. The Bimota's is much flatter and running about 14-15/1 at full throttle.

Given the changes that Bimota did, that 158 is feasible, if not likely.

[marko138]

I don't think I could even get on that bike. I have trouble with the ergos of your DB4. Sounds like this thing would kill me.

[goof2]

Thanks for writing about a pretty unique bike.