2025 Bimota World Superbike machine revealed

The Bimota KB998 has been revealed as the new superbike from the Italian brand with which it will contest the 2025 World Superbike Championship.

Revealed in an all-black livery with a red fairing, the bike’s Kawasaki links are made clear by the “powered by Kawasaki” sticker on the rear of the belly pan.

The bike uses the same inline-four cylinder engine as is used in the Kawasaki ZX-10RR, but has a different frame specially built by Bimota.

The fairing of the KB998 is also different to the ZX-10RR’s, with the most notable difference being the addition of winglets at the front of the fairing.

The new brand means a new name for the Provec Racing squad that had run under “Kawasaki Racing Team” as the Japanese brand’s factory squad.

Itself unchanged for 2025, the team will now operate under the Bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team banner, or BbKRT.

The bike KB998 will make its public on-track debut on Tuesday 22 October during the WorldSBK test at the Circuito de Jerez in Spain, which last weekend hosted the final round of the 2024 World Superbike Championship.

“Of course, there has been much work to do behind the scenes to get us to the eve of unveiling the new bike and testing on track in public for the very first time,” said BbKRT team manager Guim Roda.

“To have Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani onboard as riders – plus the associated pit crews and support staff – means we can concentrate on the core tasks at hand, testing our new KB998 racing machine and accumulating data across a testing schedule, inside the test limitation rules set by BWO and the FIM, reaching from tomorrow and across the winter.

“This is a very new bike and will need our full commitment. We are very enthusiastic to be part of this fascinating project and honoured to take responsibility for making the new Bimota KB998 perform on top as soon as possible.”