I don’t know about you, but my earliest Bimota memory is from the 1990s, when the Tesi 1D first materialised. To a young bloke tooling around on an old Guzzi, it felt like it had arrived from another planet. With its futuristic look, courtesy of the weird front fork and full red and white fairing, it was basically a Ducati 851 that looked even better than the original, if that’s possible.
So, for many of us, the name Bimota is synonymous with two things – hub-centre steering and Ducati engines. However, the famous 50-year-old Italian handmade motorcycle manufacturer has produced many bikes powered by engines from all the major Japanese manufacturers.
While Bimota’s first ever roadbike was the Suzuki-powered SB2, Bimota has been heavily linked with Kawasaki since a Z900 equipped with a Bimota special parts kit was unveiled in 1975. The Japanese giant went on to become the first manufacturer to supply engines directly to Bimota, resulting in the KB1, KB2 and KB3.
This lasted until the mid-1980s when the KB3 was the last Bimota with a Kawasaki engine until 2019, when the KB4 arrived. Things are a bit different now. Kawasaki owns 49.9 percent of the Italian outfit, so there’ll be no other
