Bimota is returning to WorldSBK in 2025. The announcement was made in Bimota’s press release posted on their website, last night.
It is also somewhat a return to their roots for the legendary Italian boutique motorcycle brand. Bimota’s claim to fame was by building sublime chassis while housing the engines sourced from contemporary bikes. So, in this case, the frame will be Bimota, housing the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR powerplant. As a note, the H2’s engine is disallowed in WorldSBK as the rules permit only naturally-aspirated engines.
As such, the program will be known as Bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team (BbK). Kawasaki had acquired a 49.9% stake in Bimota back in 2019. And soon, the Bimota Tesi H2 was unveiled at EICMA 2019, complete with the famed Tesi hub steering front end.
It was quickly followed up by the KB4 sportbike, KB4 RC naked bike, and Tera sport-tourer.
The team has not unveiled their rider lineup, although as the names suggests, will be run the present Kawasaki Racing Team (KRT). It makes sense to utilise Kawasaki’s multiple championship winning experience to fast-track Bimota’s brand back into superbike glory.
Another tantalising possibility is that Kawasaki will look to Bimota to develop their ZX-10RR’s handling and performance further, to wrestle the WorldSBK title back.
A little history about Bimota
The name Bimota is a combination of the names of its founders, namely Valerio BIanchi, Giuseppe MOrri, and Massimo TAmburini. Yes, the great maestro Tamburini who designed the Ducati 916 and original MV Agusta F4.
The company built frames around some powerful engines to fully realise their full potential, utilising the likes of Ducati, Suzuki, BMW, Kawasaki, Yamaha engines.
They had raced and found success in WorldSBK prior to this in 1988. A certain Davide Tardozzi took the YB4 EI to seven wins in the season. If the name sounds familiar, Tardozzi is the current Ducati factory MotoGP team manager.
Let us hope that Bimota will be on the top step once again.
