In his first in-depth interview since the company’s official return to the grid in 25 years, the new COO of Bimota by Kawasaki dives deep into their WorldSBK comeback.
The 2025 World Superbike series/WSBK kicks off at Phillip Island in Australia on February 21-23, and alongside BMW’s mission to attempt to defend its Championship from Ducati, will see the return to the grid of one of the most historic names in Superbike competition: Bimota.
Or rather, Bimota by Kawasaki, because the Japanese company – which since 2008 has been the only one of that nation’s four manufacturers to exclusively contest WSBK at the expense of any involvement in MotoGP – has completely re-imagined its participation in streetbike-derived competition for 2025. It has shuttered its own Kawasaki Racing Team operation and transferred its factory support to its Bimota subsidiary.
To run the company as COO, it hired Pierluigi Marconi, famed creator of a host of iconic Bimota models from the hub-centre Tesi family, and especially the Ducati-engined 1D, to the best-selling Suzuki GSX-R1100-engined SB6, and its YB series of Yamaha-engined Superbike and Supersport models – albeit not forgetting the troubled 500 Vdue two-stroke with direct-injection EFI, which effectively bankrupted Bimota on one of its frequent visits to the last chance saloon.
The YB4 very nearly won the first World Superbike title.
TRACK RECORD OF INNOVATION
Kawasaki’s investment in the rebirth of Bimota has given the specialist Italian manufacturer, which celebrated its 50th birthday two years ago, and has consistently led the world in technical advances, the single ingredient it always lacked – financial security. Bimota’s tally of avantgarde features which were eventually adopted near-universally by other manufacturers, began in 1986 with the debut of the Yamaha FZ750-engined YB4, the first production streetbike employing an aluminium twin-spar frame of the type which later became near-universal on sportbikes.
It was Bimota which first brought such racetrack-derived chassis technology to the street – as well as introducing a year later what was arguably an even greater landmark in engine management, when the YB4Ei became the first four-cylinder sportbike (BMW’s K100 ‘Flying Brick’ not being remotely sporty!) to be equipped with electronic fuel-injection.
This was another of the list of significant design features Bimota was the first to bring to the street, and besides EFI and beam frames, these include upside-down forks, floating brake discs, four-piston brake calipers, composite wheels, digital instruments, full-enclosure bodywork designed for aerodynamic efficiency, and with the debut of the Tesi in 1983, hub-centre steering on a series production Superbike. That impressive list underlines Bimota’s contribution to the evolution of modern bike design.
Bimota’s family of Tesi models.
WINNING WAYS
Bimota’s policy of developing its next-gen streetbikes on the racetrack was rewarded with a World Title in 1977, when Virginio Ferrari won the TT F1 World Championship on the YB4, though the firm narrowly failed to clinch the first-ever World Superbike Championship the following year with the YB4Ei in the hands of Davide Tardozzi, today team manager of the works Ducati MotoGP team.
Tardozzi won the first-ever World Superbike race at Donington Park in April 1988 on his factory Bimota, then at the other end of the season went into the final race of the 1988 SBK series in New Zealand leading the points table, only to crash on the warmup lap and non-start, handing Honda and Fred Merkel the first-ever World Superbike crown.
Bimota’s Superbike victories down the years have underlined the success of the specialist Italian manufacturer’s constant efforts to push back the frontiers of motorcycle technology, then deliver the results to their customers for the street. Ever since Kawasaki bought into Bimota over four years ago we’ve been waiting to see if its involvement would extend to bringing Bimota back to World Superbike grids – and very shortly, it will, with the new KB998 Rimini model powered by the Kawasaki ZX-10RR engine. In strategically authorising Bimota to create this bike, Kawasaki Motors President Hiroshi Ito has chosen to take his company down the same path as its Ducati (with the V4R) and BMW (with the M1000RR) rivals, creating an expensive, limited volume, high end racer-with-lights which incorporates all the technology necessary to win races, with engine development taken care of by Kawasaki, and the frame design by Bimota.
The chance to speak with Bimota’s COO/CTO Pierluigi Marconi in his first-ever no-holds interview since Bimota’s rebirth, on the eve of the company’s return to World Superbike competition, puts the company’s return to the racetrack into perspective. Appropriately, it’s exactly 25 years since its last victory in a WSBK race at the same Phillip Island circuit, at which the late Anthony Gobert won in 2000 on his Suzuki-powered Bimota SB8R V-twin – also designed by Marconi.
The V Due was a brave attempt at bringing the two-stroke GP experience to the street but it sent Bimota bust
Alan Cathcart: Pilu, how did Bimota’s return to the World Superbike Championship this season come about?
Pierluigi Marconi: Well, ever since Kawasaki acquired a 49.9% ownership of Bimota in 2019, we have been rebuilding the company from zero. We had nothing before the Kawasaki investment – no factory, no production line, no technical office, no financial office, nothing, just the Bimota name, and our heritage of going racing with technically innovative, good handling, beautiful bikes designed and developed here in Italy.
So while we rebuilt the company we focused on re-establishing our range of unique motorcycles made in Rimini, using Kawasaki’s outstanding engines – the supercharged Tesi H2, the KB4, the BX450 and so on. But to go Superbike racing takes a lot of effort, a lot of commitment, and we were not ready to do that while we were still rebuilding the company. However, towards the end of 2023 I was in Japan, and our President, Mr. Hiroshi Ito, asked me if it would be possible for Bimota to go racing again at the highest level in 2025. After carefully considering this, I decided that yes, maybe it’s time, maybe we’re ready to do this.
Bimota’s brains trust at work: L-R Showa technician, Pierluigi Marconi, Pere Riba (at computer) with rider Alex Lowes behind
We have a secure basis for the company’s future existence, and with Kawasaki’s support we can have a very nice team with two really fast riders – and Axel [Bassani] and Alex [Lowes] really are both very fast. We have the very experienced KRT team that was competing in WSBK for many years, and they already won seven World titles, so the team is really a good one. Also, it’s a Spanish team, so very similar to Italian in terms of mentality, meaning it should be very easy to understand each other as we start a new life together in racing. The Kawasaki ZX-10RR engine is one of the best in the Superbike class, which already won seven World titles, and all the key technical suppliers have stayed in place, especially Showa suspension. Plus, we have really good race engineers like Pere Riba and Marcel Duinker who understand the riders, and are crucial to getting the bike set up right for them. So my answer to Mr. Ito was – yes, we’re ready!
AC: Was this before you knew how great a jump forward in engine performance Kawasaki would make for the 2024 season?
PM: I knew that they were very confident about the path they were following for engine development, so when Alex won two of the first three races in 2024 at the opening round in Phillip Island, it gave me extra reassurance about what I had said to Mr. Ito!
Pierluigi Marconi is living the Bimota dream again
AC: So when did he give you the go ahead to start work on the KB998?
PM: On the 23rd December 2023 – but when I came back to Rimini from Japan, I didn’t say anything to anyone, until after we all came back from the Christmas holidays. Then, I got everyone in the company together and said, “Happy New Year, now we have some work to do!”
AC: So from there to October 21, 2024 when the race-ready bike first took to the track the week after the final round of the 2024 World Championship in Jerez, was only ten months – so you must have had to work very hard to create it in this short space of time. For sure you must have done some preliminary work on the design beforehand – but did you already have a rolling prototype KB998?
PM: We made the first track tests of the muletto [the prototype version of the KB998 – AC] in Navarra circuit in Spain at the end of May last year, with our test rider Florian Marino riding it. He has been a fantastic asset to our technical team in developing the bike – he is fast, doesn’t crash, and gives excellent feedback all the time. He’s been one of the main reasons why the KB998 project has advanced so quickly.
So then after that we went to Jerez, this time with Axel and Alex joining us for their first rides on the bike – but still in prototype form. I’m glad to say they had a very favourable opinion of it from the very first laps, which was a big relief! After that, we went with all three riders to another WSBK circuit in Barcelona, which is faster than Jerez, and again the results were good. So now we had to assess all the lessons learnt from these initial tests, and build the first three racebikes which incorporated them. We finished the final assembly of them just two hours before the Jerez test started in October!
AC: Yet despite that your two riders topped the timing sheets at those tests. That’s a pretty good result.
PM: No, a REALLY good result, and I must thank the team for making this possible, with some very good organisation. Because the first day, we only rode with Florian Marino, but I need to say thanks again to him also, because he did a really good job in setting up all three newly assembled bikes exactly all the same, which of course we needed to do so as to profit from the development laps. For sure they were not identical to start with, so we needed to modify them quite a bit, to adjust and fine tune the settings, to be ready for the second day, when Alex and Axel would ride them for the first time in completed form. We were fairly sure that all three bikes were running nicely, but we didn’t yet know how nicely.
First Axel began making a few laps, and he immediately made a really good time. He ended up fastest of the riders taking part including from Honda, Ducati and some others – but that’s not so important. What was really encouraging was that he immediately went half a second faster on the Bimota than he did in the Superpole qualifying for the World Superbike round the previous weekend on the Kawasaki ZX10RR he’d been racing all season, with exactly the same engine! And Alex was only two-tenths of a second slower than him, and at the end of the day they were 1-2 overall. Both of them said they immediately got a really nice feeling from the bike – it’s easy to turn, and no wheelying on the exit of a corner. It was very satisfying.
Straight out of the box, the KB998 showed winning potential.
AC: So your personal return to pit lane after so many years away paid off?!
PM: Yes, I was for sure really, really happy. I had hoped so much that this could happen, and we’d all worked so hard to achieve it, so yes – it was very satisfying. You can only dream of a day like this, when a brand-new design is immediately so fast straight off the computer screen! And this was confirmed one month later when we returned to Jerez and went even faster, with both riders 1-2 again but in the opposite order – Alex just beat Axel by 0.003sec! But we knew we still had a lot of work to do over the winter, and we’ve been working flat out since then to extract the extra performance we know is still available in such a brand new design.
AC: Will you have an outside sponsor for the team, or will it be just Kawasaki Bimota?
PM: Kawasaki takes care of everything. It’s their factory Superbike team, so the correct name is Bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team – BbKRT.
AC: Will you do only World Superbike, or will you also compete in the Suzuka 8 Hours?
PM: We don’t have any plans for this race – but maybe if Mr. Ito decides, we will do it! But for Bimota right now, we will concentrate 100% on World Superbike. We’re back where we belong!
AC: What is your timeline for manufacturing the required customer models?
PM: We must construct 125 bikes by the start of the 2025 WSBK season on February 24, then another 125 by the end of this year, and a further 250 by December 31, 2026 to meet the FIM’s demands for 500 production models in total for WSBK homologation
AC: When will you start delivering the first 125 bikes?
PM: In late February deliveries will commence, as soon as the FIM inspectors have counted all the bikes in a line – and I’m glad to say we’ve received many orders for them through Kawasaki dealers. Since two years ago, we cannot deliver any motorcycles directly to customers, only through the Kawasaki dealer network. This is the main reason why the supply of new Bimotas has been held back, while this was being arranged.
AC: So does that mean that, if a customer wants to purchase any Bimota model, not just the KB998 Rimini Superbike, they can only do so by visiting a Kawasaki dealer to order it?
PM: Yes, that’s correct. We do not ship bikes to individual customers any more, only to Kawasaki’s own central distribution. I understand there have been some initial difficulties in customers placing orders, but I’m sure that once these become more numerous, the Kawasaki dealers will get used to this.
AC: What is the retail price of your Superbike racer-with-lights?
PM: Just under €44,000, which is the FIM’s ceiling for World Superbike.
AC: So the same price as the Ducati V4R MotoGP-racer-with-lights?!
PM: Well, in our case the motorcycle is for sure going to be expensive because of all the structural carbon fibre parts, and so many components machined from solid metal billet. We also have Showa race suspension, which is again machined from solid that was never was available before for customer purchase.
AC: So with the price ceiling imposed by the FIM rules, does it mean Bimota will lose money on every KB998 sold?
PM: No, we don’t lose any money – just the profit is not so high!
The KB998’s chassis construction: “We decided on an established chassis structure which we know very well.”
AC: Please summarise your design concept for this bike, because from the outside it appears that you’ve gone back to the future. The KB998 chassis looks like a traditional Bimota modular frame design like the SB8R V-twin on which Anthony Gobert scored Bimota’s last World Superbike victory exactly 25 years ago.
PM: Yes, it is indeed that way, for this is Bimota’s DNA! We have a Pirelli control tyre which everybody must use. Our main aim is that we want Bimota to be competitive in as short a time as possible, and so we decided on an established chassis structure which we know very well, that gives us the potential to achieve the greatest rigidity and thus the maximum grip which the control tyre we must use can supply. And with a tubular steel upper frame section connected to aluminium plates at the rear, we already know what degree of rigidity we need to obtain to have the best use of this control tyre. It’s also very easy for us to fine tune this rigidity, using techniques we are very familiar with to optimise both grip, and rider feedback. You must establish the ideal compromise between the stiffness of the frame and the rigidity of the swingarm to get the best performance out of the tyre. Because the key point in Superbike racing today, with such powerful engines, is to get a long tyre life, so as to have the best chance of finishing the race with good tyres.
Also, at the front we can have an intake system using a steel upper frame that is very similar in flow to an aluminium beam frame – so we have a very large intake duct in the front, with only the housing of the steering pipe to impede the flow – nothing more. So the high-flow intake system that we can make by micro-casting parts of the steel frame can give us best of both worlds between aluminium and steel. Don’t forget that we at Bimota invented the aluminium beam frame back in the 1980s with the YB4, so we know very well what its benefits and disadvantages are!
AC: Does the Bimota KB998 therefore have an enlarged airbox compared to the Kawasaki ZX-10RR?
PM: Yes, it’s quite a bit bigger – around 25% to 30% larger, with the same engine and throttle bodies – all the mechanical and electronic elements on the KB998 are shared with the ZX-10RR. The intake design is a key element in this frame concept, because a bigger airbox means the engine is breathing better, which in turn means you get a better top speed, again with the same engine. And then the other notable element of the cycle parts is that we have the front bodywork wings that are adjustable, so while the bike is running the position of the wings can be altered in order to maximise the downforce on the front tyre under braking and in turns, or to minimise the aerodynamic drag at high speed in a straight line. Of course, this system is also included on the customer street version, as required by WSBK rules.
AC: How are the wings adjusted?
PM: By electric motor, according to the dedicated Athena ECU controlling the wings which takes into account many parameters such as lean angle, braking force, speed, throttle opening – many things. For obvious reasons I cannot be too precise about this, since we are at present the only ones with this feature!
Moveable wings are a crucial part of the aero package.
AC: How about the KB998’s swingarm?
PM: This is a completely new design, for which we did many tests to find the correct rigidity. It’s made from Anticordal aluminium – again, some technology of the past in terms of material, and also composed of three parts welded together, just as Bimota always did.
AC: What is the wheelbase, and the weight distribution?
PM: The weight distribution is very similar to the Kawasaki ZX-10’s, 55/45%, and the wheelbase is 1445mm – but this is the mid-point of the design, so I can make it longer or shorter as the rider wishes. It’s a bike with a very flexible geometry which can please different riding styles – and we’ve given the complete freedom of choice regarding the riding position to the rider. For example, Axel and Alex have two different choices – one sits more in the back, and one is more in the front, because this depends a lot on their riding style. What we adjust to achieve the functionality of the position of the rider is the length of the swingarm, and then we also have all the many other usual parameters that can be modified – we can change the steering angle, we can change the offset so as to alter the trail, and we can move the pivot point of the swingarm up and down over 10mm altogether – we have many possibilities. It’s a real race bike, but for production – and don’t forget the adjustable position of the wings, because it’s all connected.
AC: How about moving the engine position within the chassis, relative to the axles? I believe this is also possible on the KB998.
PM: Yes, we can modify the weight distribution very quickly, firstly because we can move the entire front steering assembly more in the back, or more in the front. But we can also move the position of the engine in the frame by rotating it over a three degree range, and by doing that you can change the weight distribution a lot.
AC: OK, so is this essentially a traditional Bimota Superbike that’s been reimagined, with a much more powerful Japanese factory engine?
PM: Yes, exactly so – old school design done in a modern way, with machined aluminium and carbon components, which the lap times demonstrate works very well!
AC: But this is not the only new Bimota model which you introduced for 2025, because you now have the first dual-purpose Tesi model with hub-centre steering, the H2 Tera. This is a Crossover style model as you call it in Italy, better known as an ADV/Adventure bike elsewhere. Please tell me about it.
PM: Well, we started working on this bike at the end of 2022, and one year later at EICMA we presented it as a concept. ‘Tera’ stands for TEsi con Regolazione dell’Altezza, which means a TEsi with Height Adjustment, which makes it suitable for offroad use. But going from that to the production bike which we announced last November at EICMA 2024 came about after we had a really big surprise when a Turkish tyre company contacted us, named Anlas. They wanted to make a special dual-purpose tyre for the Tera, which is homologated with a speed rating of 270 km/h, but with a Crossover-type tread design for dual purpose use which gives unbelievably good handling stability at any speed, that’s as good as any traditional tyre.
“Tera stands for TEsi con Regolazione dell’Altezza, which means a TEsi with Height Adjustment, which makes it suitable for offroad use.”
AC: So for example, the block tread design doesn’t move about under hard braking?
PM: No, not at all – it’s perfect, really. And at high speed, you cannot hear any noise, and it’s very stable, with really good high-speed handling, and excellent grip – honestly, everything about it is perfect, both front and rear! Everyone who has tried it, both inside our company and outside, didn’t believe how good it can be.
AC: OK, so that’s on the highway – but how about grip in loose conditions offroad? Is it still so good?
PM: Yes, both offroad and for traction in wet conditions. There, we made a test of two or three different compounds, two were already good, one was a little bit soft – but we’ve ended up with two tyres which I believe change the face of dual purpose tyre technology. And the Tera has them as standard.
AC: So when will this be available for customers?
PM: The H2 Tera is already in production, and we have already built 10 units. Deliveries will begin in March, and once again future customers must contact their local Kawasaki dealer for details.
AC: Kawasaki Europe?
PM: No, not only Kawasaki Europe, but all Kawasaki dealers, all over the world. In October we had representatives from the Kawasaki global sales network visit Bimota, and we had ten H2 Tera motorcycles available for them to test, five with Anlas tyres, five with another manufacturers. This is why I can be so certain about the Anlas tyres’ qualities – these riders’ reaction was uniformly positive in favour of them.
AC: And the price?
PM: Not sure yet, but under €40,000 in Italy, including 22% IVA. And it’s not a limited-edition model – this is for continuous production in our model range. It’s also the first biposto Tesi-type motorcycle – the first with room for a passenger, and also the first supercharged Crossover model with ultra-high speed performance potential.
AC: How much wheel travel have you got on the Tera?
PM: We have 130mm in the front, and 160mm in the rear, but because we don’t have front end dive, we don’t need so much rake angle – so we put more than in the Tesi H2, but not too much, not like a traditional bike, just what we really need. We do make a little more dive in the front than the Tesi H2, because the customer that will buy the Tera is used to riding conventional motorcycles, so we choose to give them the sensation that there’s a little bit of dive when you use the front brake.
AC: How difficult it was to adapt the Tesi hub centre front suspension to have more travel for offroad use?
PM: In fact, when we started to think about it, the Tesi chassis design is really good for a Crossover bike, because you don’t have any pitching under braking, and because you have front suspension which is quite sensitive and compliant over bumps. And with the front spring preload adjustment we can alter the height of the bike very easily, but to start with we didn’t have sufficient steering lock for offroad use, just 27°, and with the traditional Tesi steering design we could not increase this. So this is why we completely redesigned the front swingarm, the steering linkage and the front hub, so that compared to the Tesi H2 it allows 8° more radius – a total of 35°. This solution allows keeping the handlebar directly connected to the front wheel using a multilink solution, which makes it more sensitive to road irregularities and braking. This technology also optimises maximum cornering performance thanks to the actively lowered roll centre that we’ve reduced by up to 30mm. And then another important point is the increased rigidity of the steering structure obtained with this new design, so you can have much more feel from the front tyre, which is also important for offroad riding. It’s win/win all round.
AC: But Bimota also has another new model – well, not so new, because you already displayed it at EICMA 2022, but never yet built it for customers. That’s the KB4 RC, the Café Racer version of the KB4 sports tourer with the Kawasaki Z1000SX Ninja motor which you’ve announced you’re finally putting into production. What price will this cost, and when is it available?
PM: It’s €36,600, the same as the KB4. Because we launched it two years ago we have a lot of orders to satisfy, and we already produced the first eight units to send to Kawasaki for distribution. But we will only make 100 examples of this exact model, because it’s only Euro 5 compliant, and now we have to update it to Euro 5 Plus later this year. But it’s a firm model in our expanding model range.
AC: What about the BX450 Enduro single, because you announced this model two years ago at EICMA 2022 as Bimota’s first-ever dirt bike, powered by the Kawasaki KX450 motor. But since then I understand you manufactured only a few bikes – so is this still an ongoing model?
PM: In fact, the BX450 has proved to be immediately successful in competition. Our factory rider Thomas Marini won the 2024 Italian Rally Raid Championship with the bike, scoring victories in several races, some with up to 350 riders entered, on courses of up to 600km in length. We built only 20 examples, all of which were sold, but we manufactured only this reduced number because Kawasaki was working on a significantly changed new KX450 model which already arrived, and now we are in homologation of the new BX450 with Euro 5 Plus compliance – it’s an Enduro model with lights, remember, not a Motocross racer. This has a completely new frame – everything is new. However, this will only be available in 2026. But we will continue with offroad racing only in the Italian Championship as a means of development. Marini is from San Marino, so very close to us, meaning we have a very good collaboration, and the team he races with is nearby, too.
The BX450 Enduro single, Bimota’s first-ever dirt bike, powered by the Kawasaki KX450 motor.
AC: Finally, how do you feel about the way things are turning out with the company’s comeback?
PM: Bimota is now back in World Superbike! For me it was unbelievable when Mr. Ito spoke to me about restarting Bimota – I was so happy that this came about, and that he put me in charge of making it happen. For the first couple of years after we restarted the company I stayed quiet, and didn’t say a word about racing – but then he came to me with this suggestion. I think we are really on the same page, so I’m super happy with the way it’s turned out – but now we must get results! At one time I was thinking about Moto 2, trying to work out if it was convenient or not for Kawasaki if Bimota made a racebike for this, even with a Triumph engine, because Superbike is such an expensive category to race in – but then I decided to stay quiet till the day that it was possible to do this. It’s a great satisfaction to be back in World Superbike with a proper team!
