BIMOTA DB10 (2012 - on) Review

The bad news is that Bimota's new DB10 costs £18,999 and is utterly impractical. The good news is it's one of the most entertaining road bikes on the planet. This bike is in a niche of a niche of a niche. It’s been built for the riders who have a stack of cash in the bank, like the finer things in life and love doing skids and wheelies.

Like a race bike with a stiff chassis, the DB10 gets better and gives you more feedback the harder you push it. Start heaving on the super-power Brembos a bit harder, piling on the gas sooner, carrying more corner speed and generally treating your 19-grand plaything like a £50 field bike and the Bimota rewards. If you’re not into childish wheelies and skids, the DB10 doesn’t really have a lot else up its sleeve, but it is a simple treat to just ride around slowly and look at yourself in café windows.

The best bit about the new Bimota is its air-cooled 1100cc V-twin Ducati Evo engine. Retuned to give more midrange power, it uses Bimota’s own exhaust and fuel injection system. This motor is perfect for what you need on the road and delight to play with. The fuelling is smoother than Hypermotard’s and power delivery is so linear it’s without doubt the easiest bike in the world to wheelie. It’s softer at low rpm than the harder-hitting Hypermotard and there’s lots of lovely grunt in the middle of the revs, so you don’t have to be dancing up and down the gears all the time. It might only have 100bhp, but that’s more than enough to have fun with given the DB10’s light weight.

Gone are the bad old days of Bimota with supermodel looks and ASBO manners - the DB10 doesn’t have a flaw or a quirk. Everything works smoothly and perfectly – like a Honda…but better.

At a pound short of nineteen grand, you could have an almost identical top-spec Ducati Hypermotard 1100 Evo SP for £11,295 and spend the change on going on a decent holiday.

juicy carbon fibre, billet aluminium and a quality analogue rev-counter – you don’t get this anywhere else except a factory race bike. Carbon fibre is everywhere, from body panels (the tank is still plastic), covers and even a shroud for the side stand. The frame and double-sided swingarm are Bimota’s trademark steel trellis with millet billet aluminium side plates and instead of the Ducati’s flip-out bar-end mirrors the DB10 has conventional ones. The tank only holds 13.5 litres.