After an impressive debut season for the team after more than a decade out of MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship competition, bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team were chomping at the bit to get back to their KB998 Rimini setups and continue making steps with their bike as they did throughout the 2025 campaign. With the racing season behind them, they can now take a deeper look at their bikes, and after participating in Day 2 of the test event at the Circuito de Jerez - Angel Nieto, Andalucia, the riders and their team have plenty more food for thought on how they can improve the bike before Round 1 at Phillip Island.

Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) grew alongside his KB998 Rimini as its maiden season progressed, sporting the feather in his cap of having claimed the team’s first podium in 25 years. The more time Lowes has spent with the bike, the more glimpses he has shown of what the bike can do. Their single day of testing at Jerez was no different; the #22 outlined what their objectives were for the test, but the Englishman couldn’t help but clock in third fastest on the day.

REHASHING THE SETUP: “We had a few things to try, including a more extreme chassis direction, a different swing arm, some stuff from Showa, stuff that it’s hard to try with during the year”

On his testing day at Jerez, Lowes said: “It was positive! From everything we learned in the first year, we had a few things to try, including a more extreme chassis direction, a different swing arm, some stuff from Showa, stuff that it’s hard to try with during the year, especially when it’s the first year with the bike so there’s not much of a base setting going into some circuits. We had some ideas from that. We rode both sessions back-to-back. I felt some good steps; we were hoping the track would be a bit warmer, around 36-37 degrees. We were hoping for it to get as hot as possible because we wanted to test the bike in some warmer conditions. Everything we tried other than that was quite positive. Years of development have helped us find a good direction on the bike, and I think we now have another clear path for the winter. It was a positive morning, I enjoyed riding the bike. It was a good day in Jerez.”

OFFSEASON WORK BEGINS: “We have a lot of things we can improve, including the speed on the straights, the aerodynamics and the suspension”

While Bassani didn’t have quite the same successes with the bike in the team’s first season, Bassani has demonstrated throughout his career that, in terms of outright speed, he is up among the top. While he hasn’t yet shown it with the KB998 Rimini, this offseason gives both him and his bike plenty of time to continue to get familiar. In the test, Bassani’s 1’39.050s lap had looked like it would seat him in P4; however, a late lap by Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Test Team) outpaced him by 0.05s, sending him back one place on the timesheets to fifth fastest.

 On his test day at Jerez, Bassani said: “It was quite a productive morning; we tried to understand the best direction to take for this winter. We have a lot of work to do, but it was good, I had fun, and we worked really hard with the team. I’m happy to finish in a good way, now we have to focus on the winter and try to improve as much as possible. We have a lot of things we can improve, including the speed on the straights, the aerodynamics and the suspension. We have a lot that we can improve because it’s such a new bike.”

AHEAD OF SCHEDULE: “I think everyone can agree that it was a great year, we developed the bike this season well in this early stage of the project”

Bimota Team Manager Guim Roda has always taken a very measured approach when speaking on their project, preferring to talk about the progress they hope to make instead of the goals of where he hopes his riders will finish. That mindset is exactly what his team needs, as they will now have several months to pore over the data and make strides with their platform before the 2026 season begins again.

On his view of the team’s move into 2026, Roda said: “I think everyone can agree that it was a great year, we developed the bike this season well in this early stage of the project. We can all be quite satisfied with the pace we achieved, and we have a good base to make the next step in 2026. I think the interaction between this new brand and all the ideas Kawasaki had about it has been very positive, and we’re looking to take it to another level. The work between them and Bimota has been a very interesting process, and we hope to continue this way in 2026.”

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