Italian and one of the oldest bike manufacturer, Benelli unveiled the Tornado 302 and the BN251 motorcycles at the ongoing EICMA in Milan. Speaking about the Tornado 302, this is the second fully faired sports bike from Benelli stables after the Tornado 1130. The bike is powered by the same 300cc in-line two cylinder four stroke liquid cooled engine that has been tuned to suit the sports character. The bike produces a maximum power of 36bhp at 12000rpm and a maximum torque of 27Nm at 9000rpm. The engine is mated to a six speed gearbox. The Tornado 302 gets a sporty single-sided aluminium exhaust pipe with two ports as opposed to the Naked's underbelly exhaust, resulting in a slightly better unique exhaust note.
The Tornado 302 features a steel trestle frame with the engine as the stress member. For the suspension duties, it gets 41 mm upside down forks up front and a lateral shock absorber at the rear with adjustable preload. The fuel tank capacity is 14 litres. It runs on 17 inch alloy wheels with 110/70 section tyre at the front and 150/60 section tyre at the rear. Braking duties are taken care of by 260 mm floating discs with 4-piston caliper at the front and 240 mm disc brakes at the rear. If reports are to believed, then expect the bike to be launched around the second half of 2016.
The Benelli BN251 is a 250cc naked street bike for the emerging markets. Looks wise, the Benelli 251 looks similar to it's elder brother, the TNT300. Benelli promises to offer EXCELLENT fuel economy, agile performance and an easy to ride character with the BN251.Coming to the engine, the BN251 is powered by a liquid-cooled four stroke single cylinder engine that produces a maximum power of 25bhp and a maximum torque of 21.5Nm of torque. The engine is incorporated as a stress member in the steel trestle frame, thus adding to the rigidity of the chassis.
The bike gets 41 mm USD forks for the front and a single swingarm mount shock absorber at the rear. Braking duties are done by 280 mm disc at the front with four piston caliper and a 240 mm disc at the rear with double piston caliper. The bike is expected to come in white, red and black colour options. The bike should be launched here in India early on next year.
By: Rakesh Gowda