Alex Lowes: Bimota World Superbike more “gentle” than Kawasaki ZX-10RR
“The character’s a little bit different, the feelings are a bit different…”
Alex Lowes switches to Bimota machinery in 2025 after five WorldSBK seasons on the Kawasaki ZX-10RR.
The new bike, powered by the same 998cc inline-four-cylinder engine as the ZX-10RR, features a wholly different chassis to the Kawasaki, designed by Bimota themselves, as well as new aerodynamic winglets.
Lowes, and Bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team teammate Axel Bassani, has only one day on the bike so far, but the KB998 has already made an impact.
“Jerez was the first test for us, so of course we have a lot of work to do, exploring the bike,” Lowes told WorldSBK.com at the EICMA motorcycle show.
“I need to understand the bike: the character’s a little bit different, the feelings are a bit different.
“I was quite a few years on the Kawasaki, so adjusting is going to take a little bit of time, but in the one day we had I felt good.
“We know that we need to work on understanding the bike, how to get the most from the bike, settings on the bike, the base setting, all this type of thing we have to work on. But it’s a good challenge.”
He continued: “The character of the bike is quite a bit different, a bit more than I expected. We have a different chassis, the aerodynamics are heavily modified.
“So, the bike on the track feels a bit different, it’s a bit more gentle, a bit more easy to turn. I’m sure, as I explore the bike a bit more, there’s going to be positives and negatives, but it’s been a very interesting first day, and I just want to get back on the bike and understand a bit more.”
Lowes goes into the 2025 season, his first on the Bimota, off the back of what was arguably his best season to date in WorldSBK in 2024, taking two wins and 10 further podiums to finish fourth in the standings.
“It was a good year,” Lowes said. “My final year on the green Kawasaki was a good one, I enjoyed it, I was competitive pretty much most weekends; just a couple of races — Aragon, Barcelona — I was not fantastic.
“But, in the rest of the races, we managed to pick up at least one podium, whether it was in the main races or the Superpole Race.
“It gives me some good confidence going into next year; I hope we start next year as we finished this year, and it would be my dream to win a race on the Bimota, [...] that has to be the target. But we have a lot of work to do before we arrive at that point.”
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
