Filthy bling
Sorry, a Bimota off-road bike? Nobody saw this coming...
If only we’d popped along to the betting shop and stuck twenty quid down on there being a Bimota off-roader for 2023. The odds would have been staggering; we’d have won so much we could have bought… well, a Bimota. Yet here it is.
Clearly this isn’t the tiny Italian outfit having a complete change of direction. Kawasaki own just under 50% of Bimota and supply the engines for their wondrous Tesi H2 and the sublime KB4 (see page 38), and so the new BX450 is a rebranding of Kawasaki’s KX450. There’s no effort to hide this fact – when they whipped the dust sheets off the new BX450 at the recent EICMA show in Italy, Bimota confirmed ‘it will look strikingly similar to the base model KX450’. There are differences however, and they go beyond Bimota’s tasteful colours. The 449cc four-stroke single is remapped and has other electronic alterations, including different settings for the traction control system. It’s also sold as an Enduro bike complete with lights and meets Euro5 emission regulations. Kawasaki’s 2023-model KX starts at £8690 (in off-road trim), and so obviously the BX ain’t gonna be cheap – but if you’re all about status then it will be far and away the cheapest way to bragging about owning a Bimota.
There’s another model more in keeping with what we expect from Bimota. Called the Tera, it’s a hub-steered sports-tourer based on the Tesi H2, complete with its sensational supercharged engine but with a revised steering system using a diagonal link from the steering head to the wheel.
The revived firm clearly believes in the bikes. ‘New Bimota bikers will crowd into Bimota dealerships,’ said Bimota’s Pierluigi Marconi. Yes indeed.