Bimota HB4

It’s very rare that we feature a factory-fresh machine, but Bimota’s HB4 is a worthy exception. This compact, sharply-styled racebike is Bimota’s first Honda-powered bike since the CB1100-engined HB3 of the mid-80s. The boutique Rimini-based manufacturer has stuck with its signature trellis frame, but this time it’s a steel and magnesium hybrid, and it’s cradling a CBR600RR motor. Designed for the Moto2 series, the HB4 is claimed to weigh just 297lbs—a staggering 113lbs less than the quoted wet weight of Honda’s 2010-spec CBR600RR. Interestingly, several websites are reporting that a road-going variant of the HB4 will be produced if the bike is successful on the track, but a Bimota spokesperson told us, “We are thinking about a road version but we do not have a project or a prototype. We are just considering that idea”. We hope it happens, because a light middleweight sportsbike with Bimota’s pedigree and Honda’s reliability (at an affordable price) would be very tempting indeed. [See a video of the Bimota HB4 in testing on YouTube.]