Kalex · History

In 2011, in only the second season of Moto2, Germany’s Stefan Bradl became world champion with the Viessmann Kiefer Racing team. His bike used a chassis built in Bobingen, Bavaria, by Kalex Engineering, a company that was just three years old at the time. It was the brand’s first riders’ world title. From then on, the Kalex name became tied to the intermediate class of the Grand Prix world championship, where it became the benchmark constructor and the chassis chosen by most of the grid.

Origins: two engineers and a race bike

Kalex grew out of a partnership between Klaus Hirsekorn and Alex Baumgärtel, and its name combines their first names. Both came from professional car racing, in the DTM and rallying, where they had worked as a production manager and a development engineer. According to the company, the project started in 2005: after a track day at the Sachsenring on a Voxan Café Racer, Baumgärtel suggested building a bike for the circuit and Hirsekorn agreed. They began building the AV1 prototype while still holding full-time jobs. The company was formally founded in 2008 in Bobingen, and its first race win came at Schleiz with Damian Cudlin. Before the move to the world championship, Hirsekorn left his job to work full-time on the new venture.

Arrival in Moto2

Moto2 got under way in 2010 with a single 600 cc engine supplied by Honda and an open field for chassis makers. Kalex made its debut that year with Pons Racing, the team run by Sito Pons. In that first campaign the brand took its first podium, at Mugello, and finished seventh in the constructors’ standings. The breakthrough came in 2011: several teams used the Bavarian chassis, Bradl won the riders’ championship and Kalex was runner-up among the constructors. In 2012 it was second among the manufacturers again, with Pol Espargaró as riders’ runner-up. That same year the company also entered the new Moto3 class with the Kalex KTM run by RW Racing GP, on which Luis Salom won at Indianapolis and Aragón and finished second in the championship behind Sandro Cortese. Kalex left Moto3 at the end of 2013 because of rule changes.

Thirteen straight constructors’ titles

In 2013 Kalex won its first Moto2 constructors’ championship. Pol Espargaró took the riders’ title and teams using its chassis filled the top four places in the standings. From there it never lost the manufacturers’ crown again, winning it every season from 2013 to 2025. A run of riders’ champions followed on its bikes: Tito Rabat in 2014, Johann Zarco in 2015 and 2016, Franco Morbidelli in 2017, Francesco Bagnaia in 2018, Álex Márquez in 2019, Enea Bastianini in 2020, Remy Gardner in 2021, Augusto Fernández in 2022 and Pedro Acosta in 2023. In 2015 its riders won every race but one and filled the top three places in the championship. In 2016 Kalex riders won all 18 races on the calendar and took the top nine places in the final standings, and the brand won every race again in 2020 and 2021.

From Honda to Triumph

In 2019 Moto2 changed engines: the Honda four-cylinder, derived from the CBR600RR and used since 2010, gave way to a 765 cc three-cylinder from Triumph. Kalex adapted its chassis to the new engine, and that same year Álex Márquez won the riders’ title. The run of eleven consecutive riders’ championships ended in 2024, when Japan’s Ai Ogura won the title on a Boscoscuro, although Kalex again took the constructors’ crown. In 2025 Brazil’s Diogo Moreira brought the riders’ title back to the brand, which scored 518 points in the manufacturers’ standings. It was the thirteenth Moto2 riders’ championship won on a Kalex chassis.

Beyond Moto2

The company’s work went beyond the intermediate class. In 2018 it was also supplying parts to teams in the Superbike World Championship and the Spanish flat track championship. Its chassis are used in the FIM Moto2 European Championship and, in older versions, in the GP2 class of the British Supersport Championship. In 2023 it worked on a chassis for the Honda MotoGP bike ridden by Marc Márquez and Joan Mir. In March 2026 Chinese manufacturer CFMoto acquired 51 percent of Kalex Engineering. Baumgärtel and Hirsekorn kept the remaining 49 percent in equal shares and stayed in the company’s technical and management roles.