Kawasaki Announces Shock WorldSBK Departure
Kawasaki has announced it will be leaving WorldSBK in 2025, to an extent. A motorcycle with a Kawasaki engine and Bimota chassis will be used
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WSBK? Kawasaki Out.
- Thread starter Evoex
- Start date
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Yes, this is more-or-less a re-branding but presumably with Bimota providing their own chassis, which means Bimota is going to have to build 250 homologation bikes a year ... presumably to be sold for 1 euro below the homologation-limit price tag. Same idea as, for example, the Ducati V4R or the Yamaha R1M or the BMW M1000RR.
Yes, Kawasaki had their own homologation-special ZX10RR, but this was not cutting it.
Makes one wonder whether the Kawasaki ZX10R will continue being sold as a street bike.
Yes, Kawasaki had their own homologation-special ZX10RR, but this was not cutting it.
Makes one wonder whether the Kawasaki ZX10R will continue being sold as a street bike.
TK4
Well-known member
Good point - one has to wonder how many they'd sell especially with tightening emissions standards ?
DownUnder
Well-known member
Pretty sure bimota did this in the late 90s early 2000s with the Suzuki TL1000 engine.
TK4
Well-known member
Priller
Well-known member
It's also yet another card dropping in the whole question about what superbike racing is for. When nobody is selling (meaning actually shifting units, rather than posting them up on the website) the supposedly stock motorcycles they're racing, what even is it?
I love the class, but the regs are based on bikes they sold 15-20 years ago, not now. It's not relevant to the average race fan. I see more fuss about the ridiculous King of the Baggers series in the US than the actual superbike racing, and that's because people respond to seeing bikes they recognize on the track.
I think the manufacturers need to get together and come up with a fresh set of rules that can accommodate bikes they think they can actually shift. If that means a return to series roots with supernakeds, I'm all in. I'd love to see Super Dukes, Tuonos, MT-10's and Streetfighters all going at it hammer and tongs. If it means bumping the displacement limits to 1100 or 1200 cc to include bikes like the RSV4 and the Ducati people actually buy, then okay. But watching a series where half the field is based on bikes last significantly updated in 2015/2016, it gets a bit silly...
I love the class, but the regs are based on bikes they sold 15-20 years ago, not now. It's not relevant to the average race fan. I see more fuss about the ridiculous King of the Baggers series in the US than the actual superbike racing, and that's because people respond to seeing bikes they recognize on the track.
I think the manufacturers need to get together and come up with a fresh set of rules that can accommodate bikes they think they can actually shift. If that means a return to series roots with supernakeds, I'm all in. I'd love to see Super Dukes, Tuonos, MT-10's and Streetfighters all going at it hammer and tongs. If it means bumping the displacement limits to 1100 or 1200 cc to include bikes like the RSV4 and the Ducati people actually buy, then okay. But watching a series where half the field is based on bikes last significantly updated in 2015/2016, it gets a bit silly...
