The Bimota BSB team has been on-track at this week’s Portimao WorldSBK test for its first day of running with the KB998.

Bimota enters BSB this season for the first time with its new bike, which debuted in WorldSBK last season. The FS-3 team, which previously ran Kawasaki’s official team in BSB, will run the KB998s this season with Max Cook and rookie Joe Talbot aboard the machines.

Both riders were on-track at Portimao on Monday (9 March) for their first day of testing on the new bike.

“Just finished day one here at Portimao, day one on the new Bimota,” Cook said afterwards in a video posted to the AJN Steelstock Bimota team’s Instagram page.

“Honestly, it was such a good day, the bike just feels like a race bike – it’s a proper weapon.

“As soon as we went out of pit lane I just had a smile on my face and thought ‘This bike is unbelievable’. 

“It just does everything so well, it corners so well, it’s so stable under the brakes, it’s really fast as well. 

“It’s quite different to what I’m used to. We’ve got another day of open pit lane tomorrow, the weather’s looking quite good, so really excited to improve and testing the limits.”

Joe Talbot spoke in a separate video posted on Tuesday morning, the rookie explaining that these first days on the bike are about adapting.
“What an experience it was, loved every second of it,” he said.

“We got not as many laps as we wanted due to the weather, but hopefully [on Tuesday] we can spin more laps and allow myself just to learn and just lap after lap just generate data so I can just get used to the bike. 

“So, mega experience, really enjoyed myself, and can’t wait for more testing and more days on the bike just to get more used to it all. 

“So, just want to thank the whole team for allowing us to do this out in Portimao and can’t wait for Donington Park in April.”