Bimota has official, 50-state-legal availability in the United States for the first time, with Bimota Spirit named the brand’s exclusive US dealer following Kawasaki’s 2020 acquisition of the Italian manufacturer. Five models are part of the rollout — two available now, three arriving late 2026 — giving American buyers a legitimate path to a brand that’s mostly existed here as gray-market exotica until now.
Five Bimota Models Now Available Through Bimota Spirit
The KB998 Rimini leads the lineup at $65,399, available now — a WorldSBK-derived homologation special built on the Kawasaki platform behind seven WorldSBK titles. The Tesi H2 follows at $76,349, also available now, built around Bimota’s signature center-hub steering and a supercharged 998cc four.
Three more models arrive late 2026: the Tesi H2 TERA ($56,399), a crossover take on the Tesi platform built for both pavement and unpaved riding; the KB4 ($53,199), a neo-retro tribute to the 1978 KB1 with a 1,043cc inline-four and a short, middleweight-comparable wheelbase; and the KB4RC ($50,999), a café-racer-styled naked variant sharing the KB4’s engine and chassis under different bodywork and ergonomics.
The KB998 Rimini and Tesi H2: Bimota’s Engineering Signature
The KB998 Rimini carries the first-ever variable winglets fitted to a production motorcycle, paired with a full WorldSBK-grade electronics suite — Kawasaki Cornering Management Function, a Bosch IMU, Sport-Kawasaki Traction Control, and Kawasaki Intelligent anti-lock Brake System — riding on Showa Balance Free suspension developed with direct WorldSBK input. Every frame and body panel is hand-painted in Rimini, which is as much a statement about production scale as it is about finish quality.
The Tesi H2 represents a different kind of engineering signature entirely. Its center-hub front steering system separates braking forces from steering geometry in a way a conventional telescopic fork can’t, and Bimota has refined that concept since the original Tesi 1D decades ago. Paired with Kawasaki’s supercharged four-cylinder engine, it’s less a variation on a typical sportbike than a genuinely different way of solving the same problem.
Why Bimota Spirit Is the Right Steward for the Brand in the US
Bimota Spirit isn’t new to this world. Founder Bob Steinbugler’s relationship with the brand dates to the late 1970s, and he’s been collecting and preserving Bimota history since buying his first one, a Tesi 1Dsr, in 1992. “For more than 50 years, Bimota has been designing emotions,” Steinbugler said of the brand he’s spent decades documenting.
The operation now splits into three distinct efforts: the dealership handling new-model sales out of a showroom in Raleigh, North Carolina; an atelier led by Bob’s son Sean Steinbugler, restoring and customizing older Bimotas dating back to the original YB1; and a museum built from Bob’s personal collection, recently folded into a nonprofit foundation to keep it intact long-term.
Bimota Spirit also serves as the official US representative for Vyrus, a separate Italian manufacturer that continued evolving the hub-steering concept Bimota pioneered — a detail that underscores how specialized this dealership actually is, rather than a general powersports shop that happened to pick up a new brand.
That specialization is likely the point. A brand built on this level of engineering complexity and this small a production scale needs a dealer who understands the machines as well as the customers do — and Bimota Spirit, shipping to all 48 contiguous states with parts and service support reaching back to the brand’s earliest models, is betting that a single dedicated steward beats a wider but shallower dealer network.
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