Bimota in black and gold: a stylish retro appearance at the World Championship finale

It wasn’t just the Ducati works team that sported a special look at the 2026 Superbike World Championship season finale. For the final race of the season, Bimota also swapped its usual colours and made a particularly elegant appearance. Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani lined up at Jerez on jet-black KB998 Rimini bikes, whose fairings were adorned with delicate gold and red trim.

For some motor racing fans, the combination brought back memories of the legendary John Player Special livery with which Lotus competed in Formula 1 in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the inspiration for the design, dubbed ‘Nero’, came from the brand’s own history: it was based on a special version of the 1985 Bimota DB1, which was intended exclusively for the Australian market.

Bimota looks back on its own beginnings

From a sporting perspective, Bimota enjoyed a respectable end to the season at the finale in Jerez. Lowes finished the second race in 7th place, with Bassani following in 8th. This meant that the two Bimota riders were the highest-placed non-Ducati riders on Sunday.

Axel Bassani wurde im zweitne Lauf Achter

Foto: Gold & Goose

With the special livery, the team paid homage to a model from a defining era. In the 1970s and 1980s, Bimota established itself as a manufacturer of exclusive sports motorbikes that combined proprietary chassis designs with sourced engines. The DB1 held a special place in this history: it was the first Bimota powered by a Ducati engine.

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Today, Kawasaki supplies the engine for the KB998 Rimini and also forms a key economic pillar of the brand. This nod to the DB1 shows that the various technical partnerships are part of Bimota’s history.

Classic and elegant: Bimota reinterprets history

However, the focus of the special presentation was on the design. The black surfaces allowed the gold and red lines to stand out particularly clearly. Rather than relying on large-scale contrasts, the design employed subtle accents that followed the contours of the fairing. This lent both racing machines a character that was as classic as it was elegant.

According to the Bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team, ‘Nero’ was intended to be more than just a historic colour scheme. The livery symbolises the brand’s courage to forge its own path, challenge conventions and create extraordinary motorbikes.

The rare Australian DB1 version was not simply copied for this purpose, but used as a starting point for a modern interpretation. Under the gaze of cameras and photographers, Lowes and Bassani took the special design out onto the track in the final race of the year – and finished as the second-strongest force behind the dominant Ducatis.