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Bimota DB9

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The middle child to the Bimota DB8 and Bimota DB11, we showed you the Bimota DB9 Brivido last year with the superlative that it was the best looking Ducati Diavel we had ever seen. Of course, that statement was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but the Bimota DB9 does share the Testastretta 11° motor with the Ducati, and Bimota hopes the DB9 Brivido will be a sportster variant to this very crowded area of the company’s model line-up.

Honestly, we don’t know why Bimota didn’t stop with the DB8 and move on, instead of building two more motorcycles off the same motor and chassis (god only knows how many variations stem from the DB8, DB9 DB11, and DB12 combined).

It’s not that we don’t like the Bimota DB9 Brivido (though, the headlights do offend us in an elbows-on-the-table sort of way), it is just that we hate to see the boutique Italian brand run this design for everything it is worth..even if they throw a supercharger on it.

Trotting the Bimota DB9 Brivido back out to EICMA for a second year in a row, the Italian brand calls this 2013 Bimota DB9 Brivido Italia. You know, because they put the Tricolore on it. Beautiful and boring at the same time, there is a reason we have buried this article today in the middle of the brand’s other more intriguing offerings from EICMA.

Astute readers this week would have noticed our coverage of the Bimota DB10 Bimotard, and wondered how the boutique Italian firm jumped from the DB8 to the DB10 designation. Well yes Virginia, there is a DB9. The Bimota DB9 Brivido arrived to the 2011 EICMA show with slightly less fanfare, but its still a classic example of the motorcycle company’s current design and ethos. Based around the 162hp Testastretta 11° motor from the Ducati Diavel, the DB9 Brivido continues the aesthetics that began with the Ducati Superbike 1198-powered DB8, and works in the more streetable maintenance-friendly Diavel motor.

Like every Bimota, the real masterpiece is the chassis that the Italian company builds around the production motors of other companies. In the case of the Bimota DB9 Brivido, the frame is made from both aluminum and a chromoly alloy, while the forks are 43mm Marzocchi units with the rear shock being from Extreme Tech. Brakes are of course Brembos, while the race exhaust is by Arrow. Bimota quotes the dry weight of the Bimota DB9 Brivido as 177kg (390 lbs), though true to the Italian company’s form, that weight can get further reduced with other premium options.