Benelli has impressed the global motorcycle market in recent years with its impressive yet affordable range of performance-oriented two-wheelers. Bikes like the Benelli TRK 502 have gained global recognition, and have propelled the Chinese-owned Italian motorcycle manufacturer to fame. Much more recently, the brand has been upping the ante in performance and features, and recently unveiled the Leoncino 800 in the global market.
The Benelli Leoncino 800, apart from being available in certain Asian and European markets, is now poised to take on the Australian market and prove itself as a force to be reckoned with in the middleweight neo-retro roadster category. From a styling perspective, the Leoncino 800 clearly takes a lot of styling cues from its younger sibling, the Leoncino 500. It gives off a rugged, muscular aesthetic, while looking modern and premium thanks to its burly inverted forks and LED headlight. It's available in three colorways that accentuate its retro-themed character consisting of Rock Grey, Terrain Brown, and Forest Green.
As for performance, the Leoncino 800 is Benelli's most powerful twin-cylinder-equipped model yet. Packing a Euro 5-compliant, 754cc, parallel-twin engine, the Leoncino 800 churns out a respectable 76.2 horsepower at 8,500 rpm and 47 ft-lbs of torque at 6,500 rpm. The engine flaunts thoroughly modern internals with dual overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder, and 43-millimeter throttle bodies. Power is sent to the rear wheel via a six-speed manual transmission equipped with a slipper assist clutch.
Apart from the engine, the Benelli Leoncino 800 packs some premium components. For instance, braking hardware consists of dual four-piston radially mounted calipers and 320-millimeter rotors up front, and a single 260-millimeter rotor at the back, with dual-channel ABS as standard. The Leoncino 800 rgets beefy 50 millimeter inverted front forks with full adjustability consisting of preload, compression, and rebound. The rear centrally mounted monoshock features similar levels of adjustability, too.
Last but not least, Benelli throws in a full-color TFT display to give the Leoncino 800 a thoroughly premium aesthetic, without detracting from the bikes retro-inspired theme too much. At retail, the Leoncino 800 costs $13,490 AUD, or the equivalent of $8,771 USD, undercutting the competition by a significant margin.
