Bimota Tesi H2 First Look

When a couple of weeks ago Cycle World announced that Kawasaki had acquired Bimota, we all were puzzled. And we surely did not expect that the resurrected Bimota brand would already be fully in gear to create what might be the ultimate monster on two wheels: The mighty Kawasaki supercharged H2 engine harnessed in a Bimota Tesi chassis.

First we must underline that Kawasaki is extremely determined to recreate Bimota where it has always belonged, in Rimini, Italy. The new premises are already under construction. But most important, Kawasaki has established contact with former Bimota Chief Project Engineer Pierluigi Marconi, and shown him the plans for the creation of a no-holds-barred hyperbike powered by most powerful motorcycle engine in production, the 998cc H2 in its 300-hp version.

Pierluigi Marconi is the man behind the Tesi chassis concept and runs his own engineering studio, but I would expect that he could very well be the CEO of the new Bimota. About the creation of the prototype, rumors report that Marconi might have started with parts that were still available, but looking at the Tesi H2 it is obvious the bike was built from top down.

The Tesi H2 features the classic Tesi front swingarm suspension with the steering axis (literally) inside the front wheel hub. This is a most distinctive aspect of the Marconi hub-steerer concept, and it proved its outstanding efficiency in my previous tests of the Bimota Tesi 3.

The introduction on the floor of the Kawasaki stand at EICMA was highly emotional, and there was no time to release any technical data. That will come soon. In addition to the unveiling of the Tesi H2 there was the announcement of the coming of a KB4, Kawasaki-Bimota 4.