Some of you Salem/Portland peeps may recognize this piece of Italian finery. This Bimota belonged to Chuck aka midvalleysuperbiker who I’m told took a great deal of pride in ownership. I never had the pleasure of meeting Chuck but from what I gather the next caretaker of this gorgeous mistress has some big shoes to fill.

Around the time of the 2012 Seattle Bike Show (December) the DB4 arrived at my shop. I wanted the bike to be as fresh as possible but I didn’t have any maintenance history to work with. Not much in the way of ownership history either.

All we knew was Chuck bought it from a guy in 2009. At least the miles were on the low side at 4600.

Even still, I was staring at an exotic, hand built Italiano money-sapper/wallet-drainer. Dirty, mismatched, ancient tires. Gas so old it would not run. A cracked piece of nla body work from an overtightened screw, etc. etc.

In other words, another day at the office.

In order to establish a baseline, I dropped the bike with Bard at SUB. Obviously we needed to change the timing belts, check the valve adjustment and perform a full service. Duh!

We jumped in head first and full steam ahead.

Imagine my surprise when I got the call. Bardsley was of the opinion that one of the exhaust valve guides was loose enough that it was on the borderline of having to be replaced. I tend to take these calls better than most since, for reasons unknown, I enjoy spending money and fixing things that aren’t really broken.

And as we all know almost every air cooled Ducati came from the factory with valve guides made from mozzarella but I digress.

So a 6k service morphed into a full on, engine-out top-end rebuild. The cylinder heads were sent to Lyons Technical Machining in Aloha, OR. Four new guides (upgraded material), valve grind, cleaning, surfacing, etc. New oem piston rings and cylinder deglazing.

Optimized cam timing, meticulous valve adjustment, new timing belts, rollers, gaskets, new oil/filter, carb clean/synch, new spark plugs, blah, blah blah.

Bimota DB 4

Mechanically, the rest of the bike was sorted as well. Properly routed brake lines, new hydraulic fluid (clutch and brake), new Michelin Pilot Sport rubber, fresh Odyssey red top battery, new crankcase breather system and whatever else Bard or I saw that was required.

Cosmetically, other than the mounting screw crack on 1 side panel, the bike was just dusty and dirty. I had Russ Foy repair the panel and I lightly cleaned/detailed the bike. Fantastico.

There are a few alterations from stock:

Spiegler billet rearset foot controls. These have their own rear brake master cylinder. There is no provision for a rear brake light switch with these controls.

Carbon exhaust canister.

Accel ignition coils and better plug wires.

Yoyodyne billet clutch slave cylinder for a lighter lever pull.

Bimota DB 4


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