It's been one of the most long-awaited motorcycles. We're talking about Bimota, which will appear on the starting blocks of the next World Superbike Championship with the duo formed by Axel Bassani and Alex Lowes.
And the BK998 Rimini certainly hasn't escaped the watchful eye of its fans. The compound trellis frame, which is made up of both aluminum and steel, represents the flagship of the Italian manufacturer that, as we know, uses a Kawasaki engine.
One of the the special features of this bike are its wings, which seem to echo those of the F1 in the 1990s. The adjustable angle of the outer part is electronically controlled and works without any intervention by the rider, so the whole process is fully automatic.
However, during the SBK tests in Jerez, several representatives of the manufacturers present questioned whether the movable wings were allowed or not. The answer is yes! In fact, the Superbike regulations allow for the use of mobile wings only if they're also present on the production model. In this case, they were faithful to the factory model.
Taking a step back, the talk of movable wings brings to mind what Moto Guzzi did when they took advantage of this component on the Mandello V100 so as to allow for greater comfort for bike enthusiasts.
That said, regarding how this part works, the angle, as well as the grip and forward movement, can be changed through speed: at high speed, the wing allows for a reduction in resistance, favoring forward motion while, at low speed, it provides more load on the front wheel, in order to achieve greater grip.
This is what Bimota brought to the BK998 Rimini in relation to aerodynamic, in order to challenge the competition.