Bimota V-Due (1997-1998)

If you're going to build a two-stroke, then make it a tiger, not a pussycat spitting up a fur ball. The sad reality is that the Bimota V-Due never really had enough poke, and it made its claimed 110bhp in a narrow power band, which made the motorcycle very hard work to ride. When the 175bhp R1 appeared a year after the V-Due was launched it made the Bimota V-Due look like some badly jazzed up club racer's 250 stroker.

Big respect here, a superb chassis, probably over-engineered for the 500cc motor, but super-lightweight and possessed of outstanding suspension and brake. It made the Bimota V-Due a sweet thing to razz around corners, when in the right gear/rpm combo...

Hmm, perhaps it was the way that the mirrors looked straight off a Cagiva Mito 125, or the naff indicators poking through the carbon fibre bodywork, but the Bimota V-Due didn't exactly drip from head to toe in designer kit for £14,500. They even put two warning lights in the headstock and not the dashboard...bit poor. Compare and buy parts for the Bimota V-Due in the MCN Shop.