Benelli - would you?
 

Well after writing his FZ6 Fazer off a few months ago, my Dad was eyeing up a new bike at the NEC on Saturday. After viewing a few fairly sensible options (another Fazer, BMW F800ST, GSXF650, etc) he spied the Benelli Tornado 900s that Benelli are trying to shift as they are now out of production, priced at £5995. Given we are talking about a 20 stone 62 year old who will want to be comfortable as he rides, but as someone who only rides about 3k a year in mainly fair weather, would you buy one as a toy?

Re: Benelli - would you?
 

Get a test ride, only way to tell if a bike will suit you and your needs.

They are nice bikes....

Re: Benelli - would you?
 

That's what I told him; and to take one out for a decent amount of time too, not just 30 mins or so...

Re: Benelli - would you?
 

Yeah, bets thing to do is blag one when you take a bike in for a service as you get the whole morning or afternoon then. Or in my case have a good mate who owns a dealership, get to play with them all then....

Re: Benelli - would you?
 

Personally I wouldn't buy a Benelli. I think they are gorgeous bikes and they go, stop and handle well... but the reliability record and dealer back up is sketchy to say the least. Benelli themselves have been bust a few times in living memory, and the UK importer changes as frequently as Neio gets moderated.

I'd look at buying something a little more mainstream, maybe a used Ducati or Aprilia if he really wants an Italian bike.

Re: Benelli - would you?
 

I would've bought new but my budget didn't quite stretch that far but i did buy a 2003 RS Tornado :cool:

TBH I don't find it exceptionally comfortable but I think mines is set up quite hard (I've been meaning to get round to looking at the suspension settings :rolleyes:)

Re: Benelli - would you?
 

Ah yeah there are few reliability issues as Lozzo says. If your dad is looking for something around that size but with decent build quality he should maybe consider a Daytona 955i

Re: Benelli - would you?
 

No way would I buy a new highly strung bit of Italian exotica.
Call be cynical but I reckon it will be unreliable expensive to run,difficult to get parts for(and you will need plenty of parts) and customer care from Benelli will be abysmal.
If you can live with that lot it will be great.

Re: Benelli - would you?
 

He doesn't know what he wants! It's not just the Italian thing, or the triple thing or the sportsbike thing, just to have something a little different. Every year since they (and MV for that matter) have been back at the NEC he's been eyeing one up, but realises they are not that comfortable and are expensive to run. Suddenly, cost is not so much of an issue, and is considering the comfort offset against the desire to own one. The chance to live the dream sort of thing.

I think he realises he is getting a bit older, and in two or three years time would perhaps prefer to be able to say "I had a Benelli" than "I had Bandit 650". Reliability in the main won't be too much of an issue for someone who mainly rides on sunny weekends for short blasts of a couple of hours at most.

Re: Benelli - would you?
 

yeah if he is only doing the fair weather riding and i imagine he is not going to be ragging the living spaghetti out of it - should be fine. like you said it would be good to look back and owned something a little bit different. so if a test ride goes super than no reason not to give it a go.