World Superbike Champion Jonathan Rea’s custom Vitus ZX-1
A special Vitus bike for the Superbike champion
Jonathan Rea MBE has won the Superbike World Championship four times in a row from 2015 to 2018 and has the highest ever number of race wins. Based in Northern Ireland, he’s also a keen cyclist, using his bike as one of his main forms of training off the Superbike circuit.
To celebrate, Vitus has presented him with a custom model of its range-topping Vitus ZX-1, with the paint scheme inspired by his title-winning Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR.
As well as replicating the Kawasaki’s green paint job as highlights on the raw carbon frame, Vitus has added superbike specific touches, with a ZX-10RR logo on the chainstay, JR1 logos on the seat tube and #Team65 on the top tube.
According to Rea: “Firstly, I’m so proud to become a part of the Vitus Bikes team and when the opportunity came to do a bike build together I was super excited to see the possibilities.
“I’ve been a keen cyclist now for many years and have enjoyed riding bikes all over the world. Superbike Racing is so physically and mentally demanding, I use cycling as a huge part of my training program!”
The Vitus ZX-1 is finished with Prime’s range-topping BlackEdition 50mm carbon clincher wheels, with Schwalbe Pro One MicroSkin TL 25mm tubeless tyres, a Prime carbon cockpit and Prime carbon bottle cages. To match the premium theme, there’s a SRAM Red eTap AXS 12-speed groupset, running on CeramicSpeed EVO386 bottom bracket bearings and with a SRAM Red Quarq AXS DUB power meter.
At 176cm tall and 70kg in weight, Rea rides a Vitus ZX-1 in size 52cm, with the bike including its Look Kéo Blade pedals weighing 7.5kg.
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