The SB8K is a sportbike made by Italian motorcycle manufacturer

Bimota Bimota is an Italian manufacturer of custom and production motorcycles. It was founded in 1973 in Rimini by Valerio Bianchi, Giuseppe Morri, and Massimo Tamburini. The company name is a portmanteau derived from the first two letters of each of ...

. The bike was added to the present lineup after the company hiatus in the late 1990s financial crisis. The bike was built with a profusion of light alloys and carbon fiber; the materials employed in the construction of the chassis are the most advanced materials available today. Carbon fiber is used for the fairing, as well as for the construction of the fuel tank, which was built utilizing the same techniques applied to parts for the Motorcycle Grand Prix racebike. Many elements of the SB8K are meticulously

machined Machining is a manufacturing process where a desired shape or part is created using the controlled removal of material, most often metal, from a larger piece of raw material by cutting. Machining is a form of subtractive manufacturing, which util ...

from aluminum alloy, a distinctive hallmark for all classic and current Bimota products. The "SB" series means the powerplant beneath the bike frame was taken directly from the

Suzuki TL1000R The Suzuki TL1000R motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handleba ...

, and has been highly tuned by engineers to deliver more power output & torque at all engine speeds. The SB8K is the only production bike in the world using Bimota's own radial injector

fuel injection Fuel injection is the introduction of fuel in an internal combustion engine, most commonly automotive engines, by the means of a fuel injector. This article focuses on fuel injection in reciprocating piston and Wankel rotary engines. All c ...

(Radial EFI). The racing version, SB8R participated in 2000 season of Superbike World Championship with

Anthony Gobert Anthony Stephen Gobert (5 March 1975 – 17 January 2024) was an Australian professional motorcycle road racer, nicknamed The Go Show. He was a rider of immense promise and talent who had his career derailed by a personal struggle with alcohol ...

victory for Race 1 in Phillip Island. This to be the first and only win for Bimota and SB8R.

Chassis

The SB8K has a distinctive frame that wraps around the TL1000R motor, where the upper frame is built of lightweight alloy and the lower footrest section consists of two carbon fibre plates with a box structure to reduce the frame and bike overall weight. The result is a lighter frame with the best possible rigidity over lightness ratio, the frame just weighing 185 kg on road with exceptional rigidity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bimota Sb8k SB8K Sport bikes Motorcycles introduced in 1998