Bimota Forum

[bimotayb10]

Hi everyone I am new to this forum.

I just wanted some advice regards a bimota yb10 that I have the chance to buy to restore. It has been in the family since 1996 i think and only had 1 previous owner to that, it hasn't been used since 1996 and only has 4000 miles! it is now sat in my dads garage gathering dust, and looking pretty sorry for itself after someone tried to steal it, but somehow just nicked the airbox and left the bike pretty much as it was!

Is it possible to get an airbox or can I use direct k&n filters on the carbs?

Also how much do you think I should offer my dad for it?

Thank you everyone in advance for your help.

[oily]

Wow, just nicked the air box eh. Maybe that says how rare the air box is
Get in touch with bimota or Woods motorcycles (uk importer). If you get no joy there, your into K&N pod filter territory.

Now, how much should you offer your Dad?
A) He's your dad, he should give it to you
B) He's your dad, you should make sure you pay over the odds.

Now, I suggest you pay somewhere in-between A & B

The value of Bimota's is a bit of a guesstimate at the best of times as we all value them differently

[Jonny B Bad]

Very difficult to get an Exup motor fuelling properly without an airbox, although I've heard of someone who put flatslides and pods on and got it running properly after loads of Dyno work. You could try to borrow an airbox and get it made up in carbon.

Good ones seem to fetch around £4k, but you need to budget for fork seals, refurb of all hydraulics, new exhaust - if the exup valve has seized, etc., etc. Having said that, I restored a CB900 that had been in a garage for a similar time - completely flat tyres, fork seals burst etc., etc and the bloke I sold it to rode it down to Gibraltar and back!

If you can get it running properly, they're a cracking bike - 130bhp and rock solid handling. Fuel pump gives out about once every seven years - you can practically set your watch by it and Mr Yamaha will want the thick end of £200 for a new one. Oh yes, and they've got very strange and practically unobtainable steering bearings.

If you do go for it, reckon on a complete stripdown. They're a swine to work on, albeit a bit easier than the YB8, which was basically the same bike but with a one piece fairing.

Having stood for that long it's probably worth more broken than as a whole bike in its current state. But they're a thing of beauty and one more on the road would make the world a better place.

Good luck.
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What, Jonny's gone!

[oily]

And so speaks the prophet of doom
There's nothing that can't be done with a bit of ingenuity and thinking outside the box. The Yamaha side of things is probably easier to sort than the Bimota side of things and remember, until you get your greasy mit's on it, the glass is still half full

[bimotayb10]

Hi guys,

Thank you for your swift replies. I was thinking of offering £800 for it after speaking to him and he said he thinks its worth around the £1000 mark....?? What do you think? Or should I look for something easier to restore over the winter and ridiculous weather we are having?

I quite fancy the project and the fact I remember the bike coming home when I had my DT50 and lusting after it! I would strip it down and know it is not an easy job, as well as I cannot find a "haynes" manual or equivalent for it?

Are parts such as cables, bearings, seals etc easyish to obtain? I spoke to bimota a little while ago and they could not get me an airbox and supposidly there was only 200 YB10 made? But where there is a will there is a way! Just need to find someone with a YB10 willing to let me possibly get a carbon copy of it...?

Other than been sat in the garage for nearly 14 years now it has never been crashed or anything, and my dad seems to think the engine was tuned to produce 160bhp which will be quite fun to play with! Whilst my other toy a Ducati 996S keeps warm in the garage and gets pampered!

Thank you for your advice on this.

[GeeKay]

welcome!
In my humble opinion, I would say that it is well worth £1000, if it's only missing the airbox.
As Oily says, the Yamaha mechanicals are relatively easy to replace / refresh. Cables can be made to pattern by Venhill, and most bearings can be sourced at your local bearing factors. Seals - as in fork seals? shouldn't be a problem either.
Bimota - specific parts are harder to come by - but not impossible to find. I know there is a YB10 airbox for sale in Japan, for example, although I am unsure as to if it is complete. My agent in Tokyo could enquire.
If you decide against it, I could be interested in buying it myself. Thats if your dad would sell it to me.

And, according to the Bimota Club of Switzerland register, Bimota produced 224 Dieci monopostos and 38 bipostos.

[oily]

Here we go again, If you decide against buying it, there's a few on here that would be interested.
Give your old dad a grand for it He'll be happy and you'll have the sale of the f*@$ing centuary.
Get it bought

[Pompey]

Welcome to the forum and bite his hand off! We all need excuses to get in the garage for a few hours and as they say in Cornwall... always best to keep it in the family if you can.
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Pomps
Bimota's Db2, Db5 ,Ducati's 851' 92, 888' 93, Honda blade' 93, Triumph speed triple' 07, kawasaki zxr 750 k1

[jatexup]

Hi there,

Just to add my own comments, The YB10 is indeed a fine machine, and after selling mine a copule of years ago can also vouch for the great handling and occassional difficulty experienced when working on the bike compared to say a normal Exup due to the bodywork design (mind you, most Bimotas are like this to a cerain extent anyway so don't let this put you off!).

Although the likely potential buying price sounds very reasonable, be prepared to potentially invest a lot more if necessary in order to bring the bike up to scratch, especially if it's been standing so long - it'll be well worth it in the long run. However if you're not passionate about Bimotas or the YB10 in particular, and you are not especially interested in the restoration aspects of such a project, then I'm sure as already indicated, there would be several interested enthusiastic buyers out there (and perhaps therefore better to consider sell as a complete bike if need be, than break in my opinion, given how few were actually produced).

Good luck whatever you eventually decide to do!

John

[Pompey]

Final thought... if you dont buy it from your dad and keep it as a treasured item then you'll have to change your forum name, and that would be far harder then sorting the bike out
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Pomps
Bimota's Db2, Db5 ,Ducati's 851' 92, 888' 93, Honda blade' 93, Triumph speed triple' 07, kawasaki zxr 750 k1

[oily]

[Jonny B Bad]

Something that's easy to check out and may give some indication of the work required is the rear axle clamp bolts. Do they loosen easily or are they seized - steel into ally, never a good idea without copaslip. If they don't yield fairly readily (should only be torqued up to about 25NM) revert to plan B (before rounding out the cap head!). Plan B is probably an impact driver, followed by plan C. Plan C is to drill them out - sounds painful, but it's good practice for the other bolts you invariably end up drilling out as part of Bimota ownership, until you've got 'em all copaslipped!
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What, Jonny's gone!

[oily]

Thank Jebus for copaslip and helicoils

[Jonny B Bad]

Hallelujah, Brother!
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What, Jonny's gone!

[oily]

UPDATE REQUIRED
Did ya buy it?
If not, why is it not in my garage