Kawasaki WSB team to fold at end of 2024
Discussion
Neal H said:
Isn’t this just a rebrand, similar to the Renault/Alpine rebrand in F1? Kawasaki own Bimota.
Kawasaki drop the ZX10 from the range and Bimota will be their ‘superbike’ brand.
I think that's a large part of it, and I think that as ICE road vehicles are replaced by EV it's the niche markets that will hang on to ICE the longest. High volume manufacturers will move to wherever technology and regulation take them. Rebranding forms part of that as, with rising unit costs from limited sales, few will pay £30/40k for a Kawasaki but, for a Bimota, they could stick another 20k on top and still sell out.Kawasaki drop the ZX10 from the range and Bimota will be their ‘superbike’ brand.
600,000 people attended 12 rounds of SBK in 2023 versus ~3,000,000 for MotoGP over 20 rounds.
My experience (at Phillip Island) is that MotoGP attracts four times the crowd of WSBK and it has been like that for the past thirty years. I'd imagine that the costs for each series for the teams and promotors would follow the same factor.
The thing with the bikes and whatever in SBK is there's a larger cost versus benefit for manufacturers and this'll tend to dictate how much they'll pump into world SBK. The benefits to the manufacturers themselves will be different between WSBK and MotoGP. Personally I don't think sales of manufacturers superbikes are impacted much at all by success in WSBK or MotoGP.
I reckon the pace of development of superbikes and thus the bikes entered into World SBK is slower than it was in the 1990's. There's the obvious adjustments to the package but the rules are tight and the variations between tracks and riders and the bikes themselves gives plenty of opportunity for finding (or not...) the perfect setup, fortnight after fortnight.
I wouldn't see this Bimota thing as being the end of the ZX10R. Maybe Kawasaki are doing this pretty much to boost the image of Bimota, who they have owned for a little while now?
My experience (at Phillip Island) is that MotoGP attracts four times the crowd of WSBK and it has been like that for the past thirty years. I'd imagine that the costs for each series for the teams and promotors would follow the same factor.
The thing with the bikes and whatever in SBK is there's a larger cost versus benefit for manufacturers and this'll tend to dictate how much they'll pump into world SBK. The benefits to the manufacturers themselves will be different between WSBK and MotoGP. Personally I don't think sales of manufacturers superbikes are impacted much at all by success in WSBK or MotoGP.
I reckon the pace of development of superbikes and thus the bikes entered into World SBK is slower than it was in the 1990's. There's the obvious adjustments to the package but the rules are tight and the variations between tracks and riders and the bikes themselves gives plenty of opportunity for finding (or not...) the perfect setup, fortnight after fortnight.
I wouldn't see this Bimota thing as being the end of the ZX10R. Maybe Kawasaki are doing this pretty much to boost the image of Bimota, who they have owned for a little while now?
I think it'll be a ZX10RR powered expensive homologation special so Kawasaki can build exactly what they need and price accordingly. The Bimota brand is more likely to shift a EUR40k machine than Kawasaki. Doesn't sound like the team is folding either, they'll just take down the KRT signs and replace with Bimota ones. It's not a Kawasaki operation any way, it's Provec.
Neal H said:
Isn’t this just a rebrand, similar to the Renault/Alpine rebrand in F1? Kawasaki own Bimota.
Kawasaki drop the ZX10 from the range and Bimota will be their ‘superbike’ brand.
I haven't had a chance to read much about it, are you saying Bimota won't be producing a new bike so it's just a re-brand of a ZX-10?Kawasaki drop the ZX10 from the range and Bimota will be their ‘superbike’ brand.
If Bimota are building a chassis/bike around the Kawasaki engine it's just Bimota doing what Bimota do, albeit funded by Kawasaki!
Yeah if i had to guess I'd say that's exactly what Bimota would be doing - taking an existing engine and doing the rest themselves but I'm wondering how far down that track they go. They don't have an Anthony Gobert-type character to perform magic on the track and re-inventing the wheel by ditching everything of the ZX10R except the engine would be a huge undertaking. Maybe they'll do a KTM and just stick Bimota stickers on a ZX10R...?
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