1997 Bimota Vdue 500

1997 Bimota Vdue 500 sits at the top of Rimini's small-bore experiment, a fuel-injected two-stroke sportbike built to prove that a 500 could hang with the big four-strokes of its day. This is a bike defined by its engineering ambition as much as its riding character: a lightweight two-stroke twin engineered with direct fuel injection instead of carburetors, an attempt to solve the emissions and fueling problems that were killing off two-strokes elsewhere. In practice it demands a rider who understands two-stroke behavior, sudden power delivery, a narrow band where everything comes alive, and a chassis that rewards commitment through corners rather than patience. The 1997 model carried over without significant mechanical changes from the prior year — buyers comparing it to a 1996 example should focus on mileage, service history, and condition rather than spec differences, though early Vdue units are notorious for fueling gremlins that took Bimota years to sort out. Owners tend to be Bimota loyalists or two-stroke obsessives who already have a modern liter bike in the garage and want something mechanically strange and historically significant. Given the model's troubled production run and low survival numbers, a well-documented 1997 Bimota Vdue 500 carries real collector weight among buyers who care about engineering curiosities over outright usability.