Bimota’s Superbike comeback: a success story in record time

Since Kawasaki acquired a majority stake in Bimota, the struggling Italian motorbike manufacturer has been back on the up. However, no one had anticipated a return to the World Superbike Championship in 2025 – the project, codenamed ‘Prometheus’, was carried out under the strictest secrecy and was only unveiled to the public on 24 April 2024.

As a reminder: the first Superbike race in history, held at Donington in 1988, was won by Bimota rider Davide Tardozzi.

The Bimota KB998 was developed in close collaboration with the Kawasaki Racing Team (KRT). Since 2025, the Japanese manufacturer’s former works team has been organising Bimota’s participation in the World Superbike Championship. Kawasaki provides the engine and electronics, whilst Bimota contributes an outstanding chassis and aerodynamics.

Bimota has now established itself as the second-strongest force behind Ducati. Alex Lowes is fourth in the World Championship, Axel Bassani sixth. Both have secured the odd podium finish, but have yet to claim a victory. Ducati riders are positioned both ahead of and behind them. Naturally, the team is satisfied with how the project is progressing.

“It’s difficult to put together a competitive overall package,” emphasised Pere Riba, Lowes’s crew chief, speaking to Corsedimoto. “You need the motorbike, the riders and a team. Achieving this combination is very difficult. We developed the production-spec bike in a very short space of time to secure homologation. A year and a half later, I can say that we’ve done an excellent job together with Japan, Italy and the team.”

Bimota need not shy away from comparison with other, significantly larger manufacturers. “There’s Yamaha, Honda, BMW – but nobody has achieved what we’ve achieved. So we were good, very good,” the Spaniard noted. “Ducati have done an incredible job; they really are at the top. We’re talking about a company that wins in MotoGP; they have a racing structure that really is the best.”

Riba looked after record-breaking world champion Jonathan Rea at Kawasaki until 2023. “Who still remembers 2019? Jonathan had already won four consecutive world titles when the Ducati Panigale V4 R came onto the market. That project changed the face of the Superbike class. But it didn’t win straight away – we continued to win with Kawasaki,” the 57-year-old recalled. “It took Ducati three years to win the World Championship. That shows just how good Bimota was at driving the process forward so quickly.”