Bimota YB4ie - No Reserve

I purchased my YBX in XXXX (first registered in XXXX) and she had already had four owners by then. The original owner was the musician Gary Kemp, who played in the group Spandau Ballet. Yes his name is in the service book, showing his address in Bexhill-on-sea. 

Her frame number is XXX out of possible XXX. As per Bimota, this figure can be broken down as XXX for type testing, XX for racing models and only XXX were sold to the public. Of these XXX, XX were of the SP model; so mine is theoretically of XX bikes. (But if you take into account Italian counting?). 

She only had some XXXX miles on the speedometer, from the previous fifteen years (XXXX ??� XXXX) so on average XXX miles year before bought her. Since then have put on few miles as it now sits at just over XXXXX. This was achieved by various trips abroad to France, Belgium and Spain. Plus the usual Sunday mornings! Even more impressive as she has been unused since XXXX. XX,XXX miles in years of use. 

The YBX was manufactured between XXXX and XXXX, my example came from the old Bimota dealer ???Folletts of London??? and has special ???edition finale??? paintwork.  I have only seen one other bike painted like this (on YouTube) and can can only presume it was done to make her look slightly different? 

The bike handles very well as you would expect with the Marzocchi MXr front forks; these were also used on many Italian bikes of the time, most notably the Ducati XXX series. have had them rebuilt to the Marzocchi racing specification which allows easier passage for the fluid on rebound. However Bimota Marzochi??�s were made from solid piece of billet and are sought after in the Ducati fraternity and you do see many XXX/XXX??�s with the Bimota logo on their forks. have also changed the rear shock to an Ohlin??�s from the original Marzocchi unit, which did leave little bit to be desired. 

YBX ownership has been very kind to me. In all there have been very few issues however the biggest suppose is the old Yamaha foible of the alternator. Yes it did fry my battery before it was changed for an RX unit. have also had to replace couple of relays (may have been connected to the fried battery?) in the injection system, these were from Maserati would you believe? 

The only things have touched are adding the mirror supports, brake and clutch master cylinders to radial ones and later Brembo Goldline calipers.

I also had the dreaded Sprague clutch issue as with all the early Yamaha pre-exup engines. To replace this it was an engine totally apart job. Thankfully it transpired that nothing else needed replacing and other than the labour involved it was not too great cost.

Whilst she was apart took the opportunity to replace the clutch housing, new clutch cover (from later FZXXX) with the fill point on the outside of the cover rather that underneath the fuel tank. This should make oil changes and top ups lot easier. Note that the original oil filler cap stays in place.

The original end can rusted through where it met the exhaust pipe and have replaced the end can with micron unit  which is age related so it does not look out of place.

I last used her some years ago and she has sat in fully aerated garage, covered appropriately but would need recommissioning to put on the road. You must remember she has been used quite hard and if you after pristine example then she is not for you. However if you want good honest example that has been well loved as well as used as it should be then this bike is definitely worth it. 

Here are some pictures took couple of years ago, as people like to see what is ???underneath??? the all-enveloping bimota bodywork.