How does this work?

[Werny]

Saw pics today of Bimota's line-up at the EICMA show and flicking through the photos a couple made me pause.

I've been trying to work out how the suspension works on the rear monoshock. Obviously it must work, and work well I'd imagine, but it looks like a very weird and almost flimsy set-up.

https://farm9.static.flickr.com/8488/8186195288_bff40f1c15_o.jpg

It looks to me as though the shock is mounted to the frame or engine at the bottom, with the swingarm acting on the top of the shock, but it's set at such an odd angle I can't even work out if it's applying compression or tension to the shock as the wheel is loaded. It looks like it just pivots the shock without really applying force through it as you'd expect on a normal set-up.

Can anyone explain the blindingly obvious thing I'm missing here?

I'm also not digging the look of tubular struts bolting into a billet plate as a swingarm, somehow it just doesn't look strong enough. Again I can only imagine that it is indeed strong enough, if there's one thing Bimota is known for it's their frame building abilities.

Apart from that, it's quite a good looking bike.

[Shaft]

Works the same way as a 'normal' damper, just upside down.

Normally, the damper would have a solid frame mount at the top, with the bottom mounting to the swingarm incorporating something to compensate for the arc of movement, like a dogbone or bell crank.

In this case, it's solidly mounted at the bottom and the shorter top run of the swingarm acts like an extra large dogbone, so instead of compressing the damper from the bottom up, this compresses from the top down, if that makes sense?
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20 RE Interceptor, 83 Z1100A3, 83 GS650 Katana
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[barrkel]

Looks to me that it's clearly putting the suspension in tension, i.e. pulling it apart; the suspension's lower mount is to the rear of the swingarm pivot.
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Bikes: S1000R, SH350; Exes: Vity 125, PS125, YBR125, ER6f, VFR800, Brutale 920, CB600F, SH300x4
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[cornish]

[Frost]

I think it works in compression. The top mount will rotate about the bottom one but will always stay the same distance from it just as a top mount usually does. the bottom part of the suspension just works like normal.

[T0MMY]

Hard to tell from the photo but I presume it works like Honda's Pro Link system...

https://image.sportrider.com/f/8574974/2004-honda-cb1000-upl.gif
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ZX6R + CBR600RR

[Frost]

https://www.asphaltandrubber.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/2013-Bimota-DB11-02.jpg

From the way the collar is above the spring it's defiantly in compression.

[krarkol]

wheel goes up, the bar you see connected to the top of the shock pushes down and vice versa

off topic - nice looking bike, especially that zorst! not too keen on the shape of the front fairing though
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Bandit 600 - deaded

[Shaft]

And looking at the picture more closely, you can see the bottom link of the bell crank, so it's just like Tommy's diagram of Prolink.
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Things get better with age; I'm close to being magnificent........
20 RE Interceptor, 83 Z1100A3, 83 GS650 Katana
WooHoo, I'm a Man Point Millionaire! https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=234035

[barrkel]

[numpty2]

Having said all that, does everyone agree it is very pretty... apart from the rear brake discs. Wavy - why? It would be near perfect if there was a big disc to match the front.

[Irn-Bru]

That is a bit odd, normal discs on front, wavy on the rear. I like the rear brake lever and the zorst
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KTM 990 SMT & Suzuki DR-Z 400 SM

[Werny]