The Bimota KB4 Begins to Take Shape with More Classic Lines

The Bimota story is about to get another chapter added to its pages, this time in the form of the the Bimota KB4 motorcycle.

It seems like a lifetime ago since we first heard about the KB4, though the bike was only briefly talked about at the EICMA show in Milan, just a handful of months ago.

An eventful week for the Italian brand, the headline for EICMA was Kawasaki’s purchasing of 49.9% of Bimota’s stock, and the unveiling of the Bimota Tesi H2.

While the Tesi H2 was on display for all to see, and was very provocative with its hub-center steering layout and supercharged inline-four engine, there was also a very quiet murmur about a second bike that would come from the business acquisition, the Bimota KB4.

Details on the KB4 are still thin right now, with only the official concept sketches below being shown in the Bimota booth (in a promo video) for the world to see, but we do know that the bike will feature another Kawasaki engine, this time from the Kawasaki Z1000.

A rendered photo, made by the folks at Moto-Station, is another reference point though, and it shows us our first glimpse at something more tangible on the KB4. The sketch takes a Bimota Impeto, and graphs onto it some lines that look similar to the concept sketches from EICMA.

It is hard to say how close this piece of photoshop mimics what we will see from Bimota, but it does create a striking motorcycle for the Italian brand.

Whatever the KB4 ends up like visually, it speaks largely that Bimota can occupy two very different ends on the design spectrum at the same time. Such is the versatility of the brand.

Bimota seems to be one of those companies that so long as its machines are beautiful, it doesn’t really matter too much what they are. I am already getting lustful thoughts at what the Italians could do to the still unreleased ZX-25R sport bike, for instance.

With some stability now from Kawasaki Motor Europe, and access to an intriguing array of engines from the Japanese motorcycle-maker, Bimota has an interesting (and hopefully gainful) future ahead of it.

We look forward to seeing the Bimota KB4 when it officially breaks cover. We like what we are seeing so far, that is for sure.