Beyond the Tnt
Beyond the TNT
Benelli's back, with a lot of help from the Chinese
Benelli’s Coord3 MCT Starlight three-axis measuring machine is the coolest piece of factory machinery I’ve ever seen. It looks like something out of a sci-fi film and is used to measure components with unerring accuracy. Gianluca Galasso,
Benelli’s test rider/press officer, doesn’t know how much it costs. My educated guess is a half-million bucks.
Benelli’s Pesara headquarters, hard against the Adriatic, has a totally different vibe these days. When I arrive, a group of six employees stands outside having an openair conference because every meeting room inside is packed with smartly dressed visitors and office workers. People are smiling.
Benelli is back on track.
Through reception, down a corridor and
through a plain door to the factory floor. A hundred TnTs and 1130 Tornados sit in neat, candy-colored rows. Women in casual clothing work on the line. One looks like a plump housewife, another is a cutie in a scarf and makeup. Carts full of radial Brembos, all plumbed up and ready to fit, sit next to pallets of Benelli’s own three-cylinder engine. At the end of the line is a soundproof dyno and diagnostics room in which every finished bike is tested.
We keep walking and enter the road-testing department. People are busy. High-mileage testers and endurance racers from the recent Barcelona 24-Hour sit on hydraulic lifts. A gray-haired engineer is making prototype luggage racks for the TnT. Everywhere there are signs of bikes being tested, measured, evaluated.
A year ago this huge high-tech, purpose-built facility employed only four people. The Merloni family had lost patience with their son’s extravagant motorcycle business and pulled the plug. Nearly
a year later the Chinese came to town. Motorcycle manufacturer Qianjiang bought the company, expertise, name and current product line for an undisclosed but significant sum. Since then they haven’t hung around. Young designer Carles Solsone,
formerly of Spanish car-maker SEAT and later Aprilia, was brought in to replace British designer Adrian Morton. Solsone started work on new models. First to see the light of day is a Triumph Tiger-esque big trailie, the Tre-K, that uses Benelli’s 1130cc Triple. We’re shown the Tre-K special edition, the Amazonas. It has a few tweaks including Excel rims and knobbies.
Head of sales and marketing, German Oliver Glaser, pushed the development of the Tre-K so he could sell the BMW GS Adventure he commutes on every day and replace it with a Benelli.
Simultaneously, Benelli has developed all-new Single and parallel-Twin engines. Perhaps the 750 and 600cc Twins are little more than the Triple with a cylinder lopped off, but they still need tooling up, and that never comes cheaply. Then there’s the BX, a four-stroke motocrosser with a family resemblance to the TnT. This bike is in a sector where the company has no experience. Benelli seems very sure of itself these days.
Galasso says he’s seen the sales targets the Chinese demand. He makes a face. I imagine those spreadsheets with a craggy line that goes up and up. “Like Mont Blanc?” I ask. “Like Everest!” he replies. Eek! Benelli has the technology to build great bikes. The Due 749 is good looking, but realistically how many of those Italian parallelTwin nakeds are going to sell, even if they’re priced to compete with Japanese equivalents? Enough to keep the rampant new capitalists in China happy? -Gary Inman
